Genesis Zero
by CrimsonMistress
Summary: On a space lab, Human, Predator and Xenomorph will unite, along with a group of experimental teens called Genesis Zero, in a desperate fight for survival against the super Genesis One. R&R PLEASE!
1. Prologue

I don't own the Alien series or Predator or any of that stuff. But Genesis One and Two are mine, so back off lawsuits!

My name is Hope. I am dead. I know this. It hurt when I died. I went to Heaven and there was no more pain. No more fear or doubt. I was at peace.

}{

Then I opened my eyes and I felt pain again. I was alive. Why? Why was I alive? I was dead. I was happy dead! Let me go! The pain seared me. What had they done? What had they done to me? Where were my friends? Were they here? I don't know. All I know is that I was wronged. They had done something to me, so terrible, I didn't want to know what. The need for revenge burned through me and I would have it, even if I went to Hell afterwards. They had made me what I am, they gave me the instrument of my vengeance.

And their worst mistake was letting me live.

}{

[On a ship, in the middle of space.]

"_She's moving…get the professor…she's waking up…this was not supposed to happen…it's too early…shut up! Let her awaken at her own pace_."

The human female slowly opened her eyes and blinked against the light.

"Turn the light down," snarled a male voice. "Her eyes aren't used to it yet."

Immediately the light was toned down and the female blinked her eyes open a bit more. She was lying on a cold floor and she was naked. She sat up and crossed her arms over her breasts and drew her knees up, shielding her body instinctively from scrutinizing gazes.

She looked up through a glass window at several staring humans, the foremost of which was a man with a bald patch and a big nose.

The girl was silent as she stared up at them, a slight scowl on her flawless features.

"I am Doctor Weiss," said the man slowly, as if talking to an infant. "What's your name?"

The girl scowled, '_What, does he think I'm a simpleton_?'

The doctor mistook this, "She doesn't understand me." He glanced over his shoulder at another male who was making notes. Then he turned back to her, "Do you _understand_ what I am _say-ing_?"

'_I understand perfectly, you dickhead_,' she thought. '_I just don't want to answer you_'.

As they continued to interrogate the girl, another girl opened her eyes as well. She was in another chamber, but the room beyond the glass window was closed. The girl shivered and curled up tighter, cold in her nakedness.

Not far away, another girl and two boys awoke in their separate cells, naked and alone. But they felt the presence of each other, an awareness in the back of their minds. But there was something else there. Something else was inside them. They were the same…yet completely different.

The first girl looked up at the scientists. '_What have you done_?'

}{

The Predator was pacing his cell again. He ignored the human who were in the lighted room. He hoped his fellow hunters were safe. He hoped the humans hadn't changed them as much as they had changed him. He touched his face with his claws, feeling the different features. Just like last time, anger raged through him. This time, however, he contained himself, knowing it was best if he conserved his strength for an escape.

He glanced up at the humans as they began preparing to leave. He snarled under his breath, the sound no different if his face had remained unchanged. He could still speak in his own language and make clicking noises, by his face was so very different now. It looked more human than Yautja.

Prince Kradak cursed in his language as sat down against the wall. He would loose much honor in just being captured. Now that his facial features hardly looked Yautja anymore, he might even be banished by his own father.

Kradak tipped his head back and roared in rage.

}{

A xenomorph lifted its head as a roar echoed through the ship. Its exoskeleton glistened black in the shadows and dim lighting from the darkened room beyond the glass. It tugged on its restraints once more, but they were made as to prevent cutting into him and drawing his acidic blood.

The xenomorph was special. The humans, or soft-flesh as his race called them, had never seen one like him. He was extremely rare, something that even drone xenomorph rarely saw. Queens saw him, yes, they did. He only honored them with his presence and favor.

His tail thrashed in its own restraints, the large blade on the end striking the floor and throwing up sparks. He swung his head and yanked on the restrain about his neck. Damn the humans! How had they captured him? He could not remember. He remembered a queen, and drones. Then humans had entered the breeding room, when he was vulnerable, sleeping after mating. They had shot him with electricity, stunned him. he had killed many, but still more came. The queen had died. The drones. They had captured him. they had experimented on him, taken his blood in special containers. They had never come close to allow him to attack, but had used machines to take samples of him.

Xenomorph King Mercarian lifted his head and let out a roar of his own.

}{

Lieutenant Shane stepped off the ship, his squadron of eleven men and one woman behind him. They were here to relive another squadron of Marines. He watched them file onto the ship as he led his men, and woman, into the ship. They met up with Major Clarkson.

Shane saluted, "Lieutenant Shane Whiteford reporting for duty, sir!"

The rest of his Marines saluted behind him.

"At ease," said the Major. He turned to a small woman beside him, "Show them their rooms and tell them the rules."

"Yes sir," she said, and turned to the Marines. "Follow me."

They turned and walked down many corridors, the woman explaining where the mess hall was, the infirmary, the bridge and scientist's dorms.

They got into an elevator and the woman pointed to a grid beside the control panel, "One level down is the soldier's dorms. These two levels are technician labs, these are biological labs. These two are containment labs, but level E is off-limits to all unauthorized personnel. Levels G through I are also off-limits to unauthorized personnel."

They stepped out of the elevator with Shane deep in thought. Why was so much off limits? What was in the bowels of this ship?

}{

They had left a while ago, taking the light with them. But she could see in the dark. She stared at her fingers and concentrated. She could see in the dark one second, then her heat-signatures the next, and then she had x-ray vision. The fist time she had changed her vision, it had stung and her eyes had watered, but as she practiced, the sting reduced each time. Soon it was nothing at all. Now she was watching her fingernails extend slowly, one by one, until they were about two centimeters long, then allowed them to sink back into her fingers.

She lowered her hands into her lap. They had brought clothes. It was all black and hugged her body tightly.

She let her head drop back on the wall.

"My name is Hope," she whispered. "My name is Hope."

She surged to her feet and, in an explosive movement, slammed her fists against the wall, causing a slight dent in the metal. "My name is Hope, you bastards!" she screamed. "Let me out! What the fuck have you done to me?"

She fell to her knees and sobbed, her fist bumping slightly on the wall.

She turned and leaned her back and thought of her friends. The shy and timid Kate who looked like she was ten years younger than her age of eighteen. The bold and opinionated Naomi, who stuck up for her friends no matter what. The humorous Billy, who could bring a smile to the sourest of people. The smart and serious David, who was the stalwart of the group. And her, Hope, the leader, the one who kept them together.

They were all alive. They shouldn't be. She knew this. They had all died, she had watched them die. She had been the last to go.

She rolled over onto the floor. Where was she? What had happened? And what was this king she was to meet tomorrow? She had overheard the good doctor speaking to a female doctor.

"_She's a stubborn one, that she is. As are all of Genesis Zero. The evolutions should happen soon, but let's see if a meeting with His Majesty the King won't loosen her tongue._"

Further in the ship, deeper in a darker place, several creatures stirred in large water-filled chambers, and evil danced through darkened hearts.

}{

A/N

So, no much action yet. Yeah, yeah, a bit short, I know. It's just setting up the scene. But I promise, in the next one, it'll be better. Romance later on, trust me. And the differences of the five teens, or Genesis Zero, will become more apparent. The real action will start in chapter II, The Escape!

Luv ya all!

XXXX

The _CrimsonMistress_


	2. Chapter I

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Aliens or Predator series or any of this stuff. But I own this plastic pear and this burnt cookie (man my cooking sucks) and this mouse trap and this'ugh, what is that?

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your reviews, guys! Whoo hoo! You like me, you really like me! Well, some of you do, at least.

Blackdawn-70631, thanks for the help! I really didn't know what the Predators were called! : P For more information on Kradak's looks and more action, it's in this chapter!

PS, forgive my swearing, there's a bit of that in here, but these are kids that are teenagers, so, as per natural, they'd swear.

I do.

"Normal speech."

'_Thinking_.'

Thought speak

**"_Yautja Language_"**

My name is Hope. I don't know where I am. All I know is that my four friends, Kate, Billy, Naomi and David, and I are alive when we shouldn't be. These'_humans_'are playing God. Something is very, very wrong. The need for revenge at how they have wronged me is overpowering. I must find my friend and I must find out what has happened to us.

Don't be fooled but this, though. I may seem brave and strong and'well I may even seem a bit dumb or'ah, to put it bluntly, a psychotic schizophrenic. I'm not. My name is Hope.

And I'm shit scared.

Kate looked around, hugging herself, partly from the chill; partly form the absolute terror that coursed through her body. She swallowed hard and glanced at the panel where the scientists would peer at her like she was some freak in a side show. It was sealed up, a large metal panel behind the through glass.

She lent back against the wall, feeling for her friends in the back of her mind. They were there. Hope was stressing. David was pacing his cell. Billy was sleeping, or trying to sleep. Naomi was being examined. Kate had to smile as a very vivid image of what her best friend wanted to do to the rat-faced scientist if he came any closer to her flitted through her mind.

Kate gasped and whirled as the door to her cell opened and a man walked in.

"Hello Kate," said a man. Professor Lawson was his name, if she remembered correctly.

"Wh-what do you want?" she whispered.

"Just come with me," said the man. "I have someone I want you to meet."

"But'I'no," breathed Kate. "I don't want-"

"Sorry, but you don't have much of a choice," snarled Lawson as two guards hurried in a grabbed the teen girl.

"Hey!" she shouted. "Let me go! Hand's off her merchandise, buddy! Ohhh! Watch those hands! You're hurting me!"

They hauled her out of the cell and down the hall.

Lawson grinned. Feisty little things, these girls. Now, for the blonde one.

Hope was prepared when they came for her. She turned her head and looked askance at the door as it hissed open.

Several soldiers filed in, their strange-looking, though dangerous, weapons aimed at her. A man strode through. He wasn't Doctor Weiss. Hope had seen him talking to Doctor Weiss a few times. Doctor Weiss, as well as the other scientists, seemed afraid of this man.

"Hello," he said. "I am Professor Charles Lawson. I am the head professor on this ship and'well I suppose you could call me your creator."

"Creator?" breathed Hope.

"Ah!" cried Lawson. "So you _do_ speak! Now, why don't you do us all a favor and come voluntarily? I would hate for you to be'damaged."

"Bite me, asshole," snarled Hope. "I'm not going anywhere except to my friends."

"Fine," sighed the professor. "Grab her."

Hope cried out as several guards lunged forward, one for each of her ankles and wrists. They pushed her her, screaming, kicking, wriggling and thrashing to her ground, clasping her wrists in strange shackles.

Lawson knelt beside Hope, "Listen girl, your friends are at my mercy. You don't cooperate, they die, simple as that."

Hope growled, but stilled.

"Good," said Lawson as the guards hauled the enraged Hope to her feet. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it? Now, come along, it's time for you to meet the king! And just to make you a _little_ more cooperative'"

He pressed some sort of gun-like contraption against the side of her neck. There was a click, a pneumatic hiss, and a sharp pain. Suddenly everything began to fade out, but Hope fell into unconsciousness with a smile.

For you see they didn't know was that she had made a rather big discovery the other day. Coupled with the revelation that her fingernails could lengthen, she had cut her palm, and the small burnt away hole in the corner of her room heralded her discovery that her blood was highly acidic.

Naomi slammed her fists over and over into the punching bag, whirling and kicking and pummeling it, imagining the smirking face and form of Dr Lawson under every blow.

"Fuck you fuck you fuck you," she muttered through gritted teeth.

Before'all of this, all of her friends, including her, had been very in with self-defense classes, especially since the three girls had had some seriously scary experiences in their life. Naomi's mother used to teach classes, and it was in one of those classes, at age twelve, that Naomi had met Kate and Hope. Soon after, they had met David and Billy in the park when they had stuck up for the girls against a group of burly and ugly as sin guys.

Naomi was as clueless as her friends as to what happened. She knew she had been dead. It was no accident how they had died, she had known the moment she was dead. She had gone to Heaven.

But then, suddenly, she had opened her eyes in a room, completely naked. She wasn't dead, she was alive, she wasn't in Heaven, she was in Hell.

As if that weren't enough, every day, scientists studied and prodded her like she was some freaking experiment.

Her fist halted halfway to the bag and her eyes grew wide.

Experiment?

Could it be?

"No," she breathed. "No, _no_, NO!" She slammed her fist into the bag again and again, sweat pouring down her body.

This was impossible'but there was no other explanation. That's what they what they had done.

They had turned them into fucking lab rats.

Naomi screamed in rage and pain and leaped up, delivering a roundhouse kick to the boxing bag. The chain holding the boxing bag to the roof ripped free from its mooring and the bag sailed across the room to crash into some equipment.

Naomi stared after it, horrified at her strength. She stared down at her hands and watched as nails grow until they were two centimeters long, then sank back into her fingers.

Naomi was confused and frightened and so very alone. She wanted to see her friends again. She wanted to see Billy's stupid grin and David's serious scowl and Kate's ever-ready laughter.

But most of all, Naomi wanted to hear Hope's stoic voice say everything was going to be okay, and if it wasn't, she'd find a way to make it so.

Naomi collapsed on the floor and cried.

David looked up from his pacing and Billy sat upright in his makeshift bed. They now shared a cell, and the ship was down two men, who were in the infirmary nursing broken noses, jaws and arms. Totalling it up between the five teens, the ship was down twelve in all, and five wouldn't be pissing right for the next month, courtesy of the three girls.

"Naomi's upset," said David quietly.

"What could make Naomi upset?" asked Billy, remembering the grunge teen girl to be someone unshakable.

"I don't know," said David. "And I don't think I wanna find out."

The five had been working hard on their strange mind link. They couldn't hear words or anything, but every now and then, they could catch a glimpse of pictures and images form someone else, or, like now, they could feel a very strong emotion.

Now Naomi's despair tore through them like a tangible force. Billy swallowed and looked at David.

Suddenly Hope's consciousness winked out from their minds and each of the paled.

"I don't think I'm going to get any sleep anytime soon," Billy said softly.

"You fucking bastards!" screamed Kate. "Let me go you fuckers! Fuck you!" She kicked and writhed in their grips as the guards dragged her into a cell and tossed her to the floor.

She screamed and threw herself at the door as it hissed shut.

"Let me out! Let me go! You can't keep me in here! I'm a human being! Let me OUT!" she screamed, pounding with her fists and feet.

Finally she gave up. She kicked the door and backed away, glaring at it, chest heaving.

"Owww," she whined suddenly, rubbing her arms. "That's gonna bruise!"

Suddenly she heard clicking from behind her and she stiffened with a gasp.

"Oh god, I am so going to regret this," she whispered and swallowed hard before turning around slowly.

Someone stood in the shadows of the room, staring at her.

"Oh my god," she whimpered. "Oh my god, its ET's big brother."

The creature cocked its head and made more clicking sounds.

"Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod," whispered Kate. "Ohhhh."

The creature took a step forward and Kate squealed, slamming herself back up against the wall.

The creature stepped back into the shadows.

'_It doesn't want to scare me_,' she thought wildly. _'Why? Why would it-_'

Suddenly a light appeared and Kate squealed again, whirling as a viewing room lighted up and revealed four scientists looking at her and the shadowed person, Dr Weiss among them.

"Hello, Kate," said Dr Weiss. "I am your supervisor today, as Dr Lawson is busy. Now, have you said hello to your new friend?"

Kate glanced at the creature, then back at Dr Weiss, "Sorry, _doctor_, but I don't think I'm able to make polite conversation while I'm being watched like some freak in a sideshow."

"Kate," chastised Weiss.

"Don't you patronize me you manipulative prick!" shouted Kate, storming right up to the glass. "Come in her and talk to me! Talk to me face to face, not with some bullet-proof glass between us you pint-sized, dickless motherfucker!" She thumped the glass with a fist, "Until then, you can shove you fucking clipboard up you tight ass and go fuck yourself!"

She stepped back and Weiss scowled.

"I wouldn't make me made, little miss," he spat.

"Ooh, look," she said, waving her hands. "I'm sooo scared! Ohh! The lab-coat threatened me! I'm shaking in my tasteless boots!" She plunked her hands on her hips, "_Not_ impressed, asshole."

Kradak stared at the human female and grinned in a way no Yautja should be able to under his mask.

When she had screamed before, he had stepped back, for he had not wanted to scare her. She was the first human he had seen who seemed to be on the receiving end of the white-clad humans' prodding. She also had an attitude.

There was also the slight scent of a Yautja, yet she did not look Yautja.

The scientist stiffened at something the human female said and they left, turning off the light.

Kate took a deep breath and seemed to prepare herself as she turned.

The creature in the shadows took a step forward, slowly, and Kate forced herself not to move. It took another step, then another, and then another, before it stood right before her.

Kate saw it clearly now it stood in the light from the observation room. He wore scant clothing, a cloak-like thing, and a loincloth-like thing. He had bracers on his wrists and guards on his knees, waist thighs. There was an amour-like creation across his shoulders and down his chest slightly and down his back to his waist (Though she couldn't see the back. Just work with me here!). . though it looked like something was missing from his right shoulder (Duh, his plasma gun). The revealed skin was yellowy brown and thick, like a lizard's hide, and covered in netted material. His face was covered in smooth metal, with some sort of snout on the front and what looked like a fang-filled maw molded into it.

Kate reached up a shaking hand and touched (She had to go on tip-toes for this, considering he's almost a full three feet taller than her) the cool metal over one opaque eye and ran her fingers down the face. It made soft clicking noises as her fingertips touched the skin on its arm. He raised his own arm and touched a claw to her smooth cheek, tracing the freckles of the bridge of her nose. His hand drifted up and went over her brow and into her golden hair, combing his fingers through it. Her fingers traced a long jagged scar on his chest before they stopped, and she felt his heartbeat under her hand, not his right side, not his left, and not exactly centered, (Sorry if it's wrong, but I don't know Yautja anatomy!) before it fell away.

His claws went over her shoulder, across to the hollow of her throat and then his knuckle brushed her chin gently as he drew his hand away.

'_Cheesy exploration over_,' she thought. '_Now for introductions. You know, if he weren't about seven or eight feet tall and look like he could snap me in two with his pinkies, I'd accuse him of copping a feel_!'

She took a deep breath, preparing herself again. "Hello," she said quietly, fully expecting him to not understand her. "My name's is Kate."

Kradak blinked. Most Yautja could understand humans, to a certain degree, but this human'he understood her perfectly! How was this possible?

"**_Hello_**," he said and she jumped slightly, swallowing. "**_I am called Kradak_**." He spoke in his guttural language, testing to see if she understood him,

"Kradak," she repeated. "Uh, nice to meet you."

Kate had indeed understood him. To her ears, she had heard what any other human would have heard, clicks and guttural sounds, but in her mind, the registered as words, as if something between her brain and ears decoded the strange language.

Yet another thing the scientists had done to her.

She held out a hand and Kradak stared at it, before remembering the strange greeting ritual of the humans by clasping and shaking hands. He held out his hand and wrapped his taloned fingers around her delicately boned hand and shook gently.

She bestowed upon him a dazzling smile.

After a few moments, she glanced down at their clasped hands, before slipping her hand from his.

Kradak felt bereft, but shook it off.

She was just a human.

"What are you doing here?" she asked suddenly.

"**_We were captured_**," said Kradak. "**_It was a hunt on a strange planet, but the humans called for help and'these, white humans_**-"

"Scientists? Doctors?" supplied Kate.

Kradak nodded, a human gesture he had picked up, "**_Yes, they came and captured us. We will be greatly dishonored for being caught_**."

Kate scowled as Kradak stared at nothing. "What'ah, if you don't mind me asking, what are you?" asked Kate.

"**_My race is called Yautja, but you humans call us Predators_**."

Kate's face fell, "I'I don't think I'm human."

Kradak was confused, "**_Then, what are you?_**"

Kate wandered away, "I'I don't know. I'I was dead, but then'I wasn't. Those' creatures, that call themselves humans, they did something to me and my friends. We're different now, stronger, faster. Our senses are heightened and'and we act predatory, our instincts are strange." She raised a hand and showed him how her nails lengthened then slid back into her fingers.

"**_They changed you as well?_**" asked Kradak.

"Huh?" asked Kate, looking at him.

Kradak reach up to disengage his helmet, steam and hissing emitting form him as he reached up to take off his faceplate.

Kate stared at Kradak's face. He had a large bald crown from which grew/emerged long hair-like thingies (oh you know what I mean!). His skin was yellowish and mottled with brown, and his face was like that of a snake. Lipless mouth on a small snout-like thing and slitted pupils in his yellow eyes.

"I'm sorry," said Kate softly, "but I don't know what one of your race would normally look like."

Kradak placed his faceplate back on, "**_If we were to free ourselves and find my hunting clan, then you would see what they have done. They may no longer even recognize me as their leader._**"

Kate scowled, "We'll get out of here, we will. My friends and I, we'll help you and your hunting clan I promise."

"**_You are the leader?_**" asked Kradak. "**_You are small for a leader_**."

Kate huffed, "I'll have you know, it's not the size a dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog! Ha! Don't underestimate me, Mr Kradak! Anyway, Hope may be the leader of our 'group' but we're all equals. We help each other, our weaknesses are another's strengths and we're always there for each other'and'" Kate's eyes misted, "and I want my friends!" She whirled and slammed her fist into the glass.

Spider webs of cracks snaked along the clear surface.

Kradak and Kate stared at the cracks.

"Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me!" shouted Kate, backing up. She whirled around and slammed her foot into the window and shards of glass rained down onto the floor.

"This'after all this time'they stick me in a'a room with'_normal_ glass!" laughed Kate. "Oh my god! This'is too'good to'be true!"

Kate turned to Kradak, grinning madly, "Come on, Kradak! Let's get outta here!"

"**_I couldn't agree more_**," said Kradak and leaped cleanly over the wall into the observation room.

"Wow," said Kate. "I wish I could jump like that."

He turned and held out his arms to Kate, who, after a moment's hesitation, stepped into them. Kradak easily lifted her over the wall.

"**_I must find my clan and my weapons_**," said Kradak.

"And I wanna find my friends," said Kate. "Hmm, let's go find a friendly scientist."

"**_You think they will help us?_**" asked Kradak.

"I think we will make them," said Kate, grinning evilly as they left the room cautiously. "And I hope it's that jerk Lawson. I _really_ wanna smash his face in something bad."

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

Hope groaned and tried to bring her hand to her aching neck, but found her movement restricted. Her eyes widened and her head flew up.

She was manacled to a large chair, a band around her wrists, ankles and about her chest. The chair sat in the middle of a dark metal room, like her holding cell, and faced a wall.

"Well this is'juuust great," she muttered darkly.

"Ahh! Hope! You're awake!" cried Lawson and Hope turned her head to see him grinning at her from the door.

Hope sneered, "Is this the only way you can entertain? With a _captive_ audience?"

Lawson smirked, "Now, now, Hope. I have no time for your silly games. We have a very important someone for you to meet. Okay, bring in His Majesty." The last was said into a comm.-link set into the wall.

"_Yes Professor_," came a woman's voice back.

"Ta taa," said Lawson, grinning. "If this does not go well, remember to smile for the camera as you die."

Hope glanced at where he pointed, seeing the little red dot in the shadows of the corner, then snapped her head back round as he left the room, the door hissing shut behind him.

"What the fuck?" she breathed. "Let me out you motherfucker! Let me go!" Hope struggled violently against the bonds.

Then the wall she was facing gave a loud hiss and Hope snapped back to face it, her eyes wide as she pressed back in her chair.

The wall slid away, revealing shadows, and something glistening within the shadows. There was another hiss and mechanical whirring as the room moved forward, revealing the creature within.

(Enter my unique, totally mine, Xenomorph King Mercarian. )

It was black and glistened wetly. It's head was enlongated and arched back, with a flattened mantle and three curved blade-like horns and protruded down it's length. It had two strong legs on which it crouched and braced its slender yet muscular body on two powerful forearms. A tail swayed gently and it looked like it had a giant blade on the end. At its back, spines protruded down its spine, but form its shoulders, two large leathery wings (Yes, wings) folded close to its body. The creature lifted its head and drew back its lips, revealing long fangs (Merc does NOT have that mini-mouth, but a tongue, and he does NOT drool, ugh!). Then it turned its large head to one side and regarded Hope with a mercury-filled eye (Yes, eye. I know Xenomorph don't have eyes, but they're not supposed to have kings, either! Work with me people!).

"Oh Jesus fucking Christ," breathed Hope, shrinking back in her chair.

The beast started forward, but was stopped by chains about its neck, wrists and ankles. It hissed and tossed its head, tail thrashing, before it paused.

It leaned over as much as possible and inhaled deeply.

'_Can it smell my deodorant_?' thought Hope inanely. '_Oh, wait, I'm not wearing any_.'

Who are you, soft meat, to be chained so? And why do you smell of my kind? breathed a dark, sinister voice in her mind

"Ahhh!" shouted Hope. "There are voices in my head!"

Be silent! Do you wish the humans to hear?

Hope swallowed, "Ohmigod, I _am_ insane!"

I SAID SILENCE!

Hope took a deep breath and closed her eyes, Can you hear me?

The creature hissed and rolled its head to the other side before sitting back, Yes.

"What!" yelped Hope. "You' Oh! I mean'" You can hear me? It worked? Wow! This is sooo cool! I can talk with my mind!

How do you know how to thought-speak? asked the voice in her head.

I'I just did, she thought.

How? No soft-meat can speak thought-speech.

Hope blinked, For some reason, I don't think I'm human.

And why is this?

Hope explained pretty much what Kate explained to Kradak, except'well, different. Anyway.

Sooo, they created you, like the Other.

The'Other?

Yesss, the one who died carrying a Queen. The took some of her'.essence and made a copy of her. The Queen and the Other shared gifts, The other was in tune with the Hive and had acidic blood, and the Queen gave soft-flesh birth.

Essence? You mean DNA? The creature made an affirmative noise. Copy? A clone? Another affirmation. And shared gifts' Hope's eyes went way wide.

Now way! I'm a fucking CLONE!? What the fuck did they do to me? They turned me into a freak! I'm a fucking lab rat! Those motherfuckers!

Hope slammed back into her chair, then leaned forward, straining.

It is no use.

Hope glanced up at him, then at the camera. She narrowed her eyes and gave the camera the finger.

Hope's fingernails lengthened and she clenched her fists, drawing blood from her palm. She twisted and manipulated her hand so she smeared blood on her manacles.

What are you' he trailed off as he saw smoke rise form her manacles and she yanked free with the sound of rending metal.

Quickly she smeared blood on the binding about her middle and then tearing it away. She smeared her blood on her manacles and glanced up at the creature.

"Look," she grunted. "I'm getting outta here. Here's your choices. You can come with me, or you can stay here. What's it gonna be?"

What makes you think I haven't tried to use my blood on these bonds?

"Maybe, but what about that little control panel next to them?" She tore free with one final pull and hurried over to the wall, keeping just out of its reach. "Do you promise to help me and my friends and not eat us?"

The creature turned to look at her and, in a surprising movement; his tail wrapped around her waist and dragged her closer.

She gasped as his hands wrapped around her waist and he pressed his maw of razor-sharp teeth close to her face.

I, Mercarian, a rare King of my race, do swear to help you and your friends and not to kill and eat you.

Hope nodded, "Okay."

It released her and she stumbled back.

Release me.

"Yes O Imperious Bug," she muttered under her breath.

She hurried over to the control panel and ripped off the front. She clenched her hand to encourage the flow of blood, then smeared it onto the wires. She stepped back as they sparked and heard heavy chains unsnapping and falling to the ground behind her.

She turned and reached up and took the collar off from his neck and tossed it away.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get outta here. I gotta find my friends."

And just how will you do that?

"I think a friendly scientist will be all to happy to help. Especially with the right motivation."

She glanced at Mercarian's wicked teeth and claws.

"And what motivation it will be."

David and Billy whirled as the door to their cell was opened and several soldiers filed in. A man with stripes on his shoulders, medals on his barrel chest and the look of someone so far up himself he might as well be looking out of his mouth strode in after them.

"Take them," he said.

"Hay, what's going on?" snapped Billy as they were hauled out and met up with Naomi.

"What's going on?" grunted David.

"Listen," said Naomi.

The boys quieted as they were marched away and then heard the computerized voice blazing away.

"_ATTENTION, ATTENTION, SUJECTS 0.1 AND 0.3 HAVE ESCAPED CONTAIMENT. ATTENTION, SUBJECTS X1 AND P1 HAVE ESCAPED CONTAINMENT_."

Billy glanced at the tattoo on the inside of his left arm.

0.5

Billy forgot about the mysterious X1 and P1 subjects.

Hope and Kate were free.

All hell was about to break loose, and these guys hadn't been very good.

Payback's a bitch.

**Authorns note**

**OH MY GOD! New chapter _finally_ up! Woo hoo! Sorry it took so long, but I had tests and assignments due and all sorts of horrible stuff! DAMN SCHOOL! Anyway, SCHOOL HOLIDAYS! So now I'm really gonna get stuck in! Read and Review! I need your support!**

**CrimsonMistress!**

**XXXX**


	3. Chapter II

Thank you, thank you thank you soooo much all you guys! I love you! Kisskisskisskiss! I love getting reviews! Woo hoo! Thank you to ForensicsOfficer and Bastet1023 and Riath Fiction Lord and Lady Nyght (Got your email! Can't believe someone liked it so much as to chase me up for an email!) Blackdawn-70631!

And to Mac-11 CQB, my partner in Predator fiction!

THANK YOU ALL!

DISCLAIMER: Listen very, very carefully, you snooty, upstart, sue-my-ass-if-they-could lawyers! I do not own Aliens of Predator. Happy? There. I said it. NOW GO AWAY!

Dr Stevens panted as he ran down the corridor, away form where he had seen the Xenomorph King and the Genesis Zero experiment.

However, he ran right into the broad chest of a Predator.

"Ahh!" he screamed falling to the floor. He tried to crawl away, but came up against two legs.

"Oh! Hello!" said a female voice and he looked up to see a pretty blonde smiling down at him. "We're a little lost. Can you help us?"

Hope and Mercarian strode along the hallway, unchallenged.

So far, they had encountered only soldiers. Hope now carried two of their strange weapons and Mercarian was licking his claws clean.

"I still think that's gross," she said back to him.

You humans eat animals, do you not?

"Yeah, well, I like my red meat well done with a side of gravy and potatoes, not…fresh from the bones. Ugh."

Suddenly Mercarian lifted his large head, I hear something.

Hope cocked her own head, "Me too. Footsteps, running."

I smell fear.

"Eww! That's gross too!"

A scientist came tearing around the corner, saw them, slid to a stop, almost falling over, and whirled, screaming.

"Catch him, Mercarian!" shouted Hope. "He might know where my friends are! Please!"

Mercarian took one look at Hope's desperate expression and bounded after the fleeing human. He plowed into him, taking him down, then wrapped a hand around his ankle and dragged him, kicking and screaming back to hope, who was running after them.

She smiled her gratitude at the Xenomorph King, who just snorted at her, and then she knelt beside the scientist.

"Listen carefully," she said. "I have four friends in here somewhere, and you're going to take me to them."

"And i-if I d-don't?" stammered the man.

"You still hungry, Merc?"

Mercarian grinned, showing razor-sharp teeth.

"I'll take you!" he squeaked.

"And don't bother running," said Hope. "If you do, I'll either shoot you, or Mercarian will eat you. Either way, you'll die."

The man nodded trembling as he walked swiftly down the corridor, the Xenomorph King and Hope following.

Kate and Kradak followed the scientist as he hurried along the corridor, glancing back at them every now and then.

Kate sighed and stuck her hands on her pockets, "Are we there yet?"

"Almost," he stammered. "Their cells are just up here."

"Hey, I have a question," said Kate. "Do you know what you guys did to us? And why?"

"Uh…no…I do, know…I was one…of the scientists…on th-the project, but I don't know…much," he said.

"Great!," said Kate. "I really need you to explain it to me…uh, maybe perhaps after we find my friends, okay?"

"I s-suppose, but y-you'd get a bet-better explan-n-nation…from…from the main computer…or Doctor Weiss or Professor Lawson," stammered the man.

"Ha," said Kate. "We'd have more luck finding a needle in a haystack than them in this place. What is this place, anyway?"

"An astrological laboratory," said the man.

Kate looked blank.

"It's a laboratory space ship in space."

"In space!" gasped Kate. "But…HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GE OFF THIS THING?"  
Kradak put his hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him.

"**_We will go to my ship. No doubt it will be docked here._**"

"Is the Yautja ship here?"

"Uh, yes, in the hanger bay," said the man as they went through a set of doors into another hall. "We were going to take it apart next week."

"Hey, I'm Kate, by the way," she said. "And he's Kradak."

"Uh, James Stevens," he replied.

"This is and odd conversation," said Kate mildly. "We, the kidnappers, sharing introductions with our hapless victim of evil. But then, we don't need to worry about appearances, do we? I wonder if they'll capture my face right on wanted posters."

She practiced several severe looks.

"Here," said James and he took a chain from around his neck.

They approached a control panel and he slid a strange key-like object into a slot. Kradak peered through the window in the door and saw his other five hunting-clan members inside the cell.

"They in there?" asked Kate, who could barely peer over the edge on her tip-toes.

"**_Yes_**."

"Oh, good. What are you doing?"

James had opened up the panel and was ripping at wires.

"I never approved of this," he muttered. "Never." Then he realized that Kate had spoken to him. "Someone's bypassed the control panels and locked the rooms. I'm just gonna…step back."

Kradak and Kate stepped back as sparks flew and James leaped back with a yelp.

The door hissed open.

"**_My fellow Hunters_**," said Kradak. "**_Come, we must leave_**."

"**_Kradak_**?" said a voice. "**_Prince Kradak? Is that you_**."

"**_Yes, Ifreet. It is I_**."

The others came out, then swung to look at Kate and the scientists.

"**_Trophies_**?" question one.

"**_No, Jegoret_**," said Kradak. "**_Friends_**."

"This is good and all," said Kate. "But perhaps we could move along. We'll grab your stuff and find my friends, please?"

"**_We will not_**-" began one.

"**_I gave her my word, Notak_**," said Kradak sternly.

"Your weapons are this way," said James. "I know _that_ at least. William, that stuck up prick, was bragging about new technology he got to study while I was gene splicing."

"Uh huh," said Kate. "Come on, Kradak, let's go. James says your stuffs this way!"

They walked down the corridor and a female Predator (Yes, I know the females are supposed to be similar…and bigger, but in my stories, they're all going to be smaller, feminine ((eg. busty)) and…smart. Like me!).

"**_My name is Inaria. I am more a scientist than a warrior, so I am curious. How do you understand our speech_**?" she asked. "**_How do we understand you so perfectly_**?"****

Kate sighed, "They…did something to me. I'm not sure what." Then she clenched her fists, "But I'm gonna find out."

(Okay, in this bit, I bring Shane and his troops in. I know, I know, I didn't put them in the last chapter but…I kinda….forgot. Taps index fingers together sheepishly Anyway, I was _going_ to put them in, but I hadn't updated in _ages_ and I was afraid you wouldn't like me anymore, so…I forgot! Anyway, back to the story!)

Shane and his troops followed an officer through the halls.

"These detainees are dangerous and need to be guarded severely," he said. "Do _not_ allow them to escape into the complex, you hear?"

"Yes," said Shane in a monotone, having heard this for the past five minutes straight in varyingly different ways. He wondered what these 'detainees' could have possibly done to warrant such strict punishment. And what were these Genesis 0.1 and 0.3, X1 and P1 that the main computer kept blazing about?

They entered what appeared to be a gym room and Shane blinked when he saw who was inside.

Three teenagers, two boys and one girl. They all looked up, as did their nine guards.

"Look," said the girl. "More mindless drones of the system in which these pathetic creatures live their lives."

"Oh, yeah, Miss Goth," said one boy. "You're just pissed you're not getting any of the action."

"Will soon enough," she snapped back.

"If there's anything left," muttered the second boy.

"Shut up, you!" shouted one of the guards.

"Sir, yes sir," muttered the girl.

"You're here to relive us?" gritted one of the guards.

"They are," said the man who had led Shane's unit here. "Now come, we must find the escapees."

"Finally some action!" said one man as he ran past the girl. "I'm going to blast those two bitches away!"

The girl's eyes widened. She swung out her arm and straight-armed him, sending him crashing to the ground. One of his comrades swung around and hit her with the butt of his gun and she fell to the floor with a grunt.

"Naomi!" shouted one of the boys as they hurried to her side.

"I'm okay," she snarled. "But you...better watch it, asshole."

"Fuck you," snarled them man as he picked up his comrade and they left.

"Don't be shy to beat them if they act up," grinned another. "That's probably they only way they'll behave."

"Kiss my ass," snapped Shane.

Naomi climbed to her feet and rubbed her cheekbone ruefully, "That'll bruise."

She turned to the others, "Who are you?"

"You're jailers," snapped a man named Wilcox.

"Ohh, scary," said the girl. "I'm Naomi, and this is David and this lightweight is Billy."

"Look, you keep to your side of the gym, and we'll keep to ours," said Billy. "Preferably the side with the door."

Half a dozen guns immediately pointed at him.

"Whoa," he said. "Can't blame a guy for trying!"

The three retreated to their side of the gym and the soldiers stayed on theirs.

"In here," said James.

Kate and the six Predators followed James into a room where six piles of equipment lay on a large table.

"I hope it's not too damaged," said James regretfully.

The Predators filed over and put on their wrist-computers, extra weapons and all sorts of stuff Kate thought was cool.

Kate had picked up what looked to be an automatic weapon in the hall and it hung from a strap over her shoulder. They didn't trust James enough to let him have a weapon.

"James," said Kate. "Do you know where my friends are being held?"

"Well, I knew where they _were_ being held," said James. "But I'm sure they would have moved them somewhere and put them under heavy guard."

"Where?"

"I don't know…"

"Take a guess."

"But I-"

"_Please_ James."

James stared at Kate's desperate face and his resistance crumbled at the sight of those watery blues (Aww!). He nodded, "The Gym, one main entrance, trapping them in there, and plenty of room to move."

"Okay," said Kate. "Take us there."

"**_Wait_**!" barked one Yautja, the last unidentified one. "**_Who are you to order us, human? I could kill you with one hand_**!"

"**_Tisarek_**!" snapped Kradak. "**_You may be my half-brother, but you are under me in command! I have given my word to Kate. She has helped us, now we must help her! Does anyone _else_ think to disagree_**?"

Kate blinked as Tisarek stepped up, revealing a large gash in his mask, a battle scar.

"**_I could challenge you right now, Kradak_**," he hissed.

"**_I would dearly love to see you try, whelp_**," spat Kradak back.

Suddenly Kate jerked and cocked her head, "Someone's coming." James, Inaria, Jegoret and Ifreet glanced at her. Notak was too busy watching Tisarek and Kradak size each other up.

"Lots of someone's," said Kate, eyes widening. "And I don't think they're friendly. Kradak!"

He didn't hear her as he and Tisarek growled at each other.

"Kradak!" shouted Kate. They continued to ignore her. "_HEY_! WOULD YOU TWO STOW YOUR LITTLE MALE MACHO GAMES AND LISTEN TO ME!?!"

Everyone swung around to look at her as she glared at them. "You listening? Good! Now, there are what I can only assume to be soldiers coming really fast down the adjacent hall, so if you've finished with your mano a mano testosterone match, I suggest we move unless you want to be stuck here in the middle of a firefight?"

Kradak bowed his head, "I apologize, Kate. Come, let us move to the end of the hall."

Kate nodded and they all hurried out.

"Whoa," said James.

Hope gasped and ducked back behind the corner, a hail of bullets slamming into the place she had been seconds ago.

"Whoa!" she said. "Someone doesn't like me!"

Mercarian reached out a claw and touched her arm, where she had been grazed by a bullet. She closed her eyes and winced, "Ow."

The acidic blood didn't effect the Xenomorph King, but he smeared it on the wall.

Nothing happened.

"What the," breathed Hope.

It seems your blood is controlled by your will, he mused. Think of it to be acidic.

Hope did so, and Mercarian took up some more and smeared it onto the wall next to the original spot.

The blood and metal began to smoke.

"Wow," breathed Hope. Then squealed as more bullets slammed into the wall.

"Science later, battle now!" she shouted.

Remain here, I will deal with the human scum.

"There's a few of them, I don't know how you're going to…Merc?" she had turned to see he had vanished. "Mercarian? Where'd you go?"

Shhh.

Hope peeked around the corner to see a large shadow crawling in the ceiling above the soldiers. One man started to glance up, so Hope opened fire on him.

He fell in a wash of blood.

The others all swung towards Hope and fired, and she leaped back, squealing.

Suddenly her squealing was drowned out by screams, firing and sickening wet sounds.

Hope peered around the corner, "Eww!"

Mercarian licked his claws clean and dropped the last dismembered and partially devoured body onto the ground.

Hope stepped gingerly over the blood and bodies, "Ew, ew, ewey, yuck, ew, ugh!"

Mercarian grew tired of her dawdling and grabbed her, swinging her up onto his back.

"Heeey!" cried Hope. "Put me down! Mercarian I…hey, way cool! Ride like the wind, Mercarain!"

He tilted his head up to look at her.

"Or not, either way," she said sheepishly.

He shook his head.

Suddenly static filled the air, "_Ksssshhh, Team Echo-Charlie-Charlie-One, report to the gym immediately for containment eradication. Repeat, report to the gym immediately for containment eradication. The Predator holding cell has been breached and control believes they will try to free the other Genesis Zero. Report to the gym and destroy them immediately, all personnel with them are expendable. Please report, Echo-Charlie-Charlie-One, do you copy?_"

Hope glanced at Mercarian and leaped to the ground, heedless of the blood now, terror for her friends consuming her entirely.

"Come on, Mercarian!" she shouted. "They're going to kill them!"

I don't know where the gym is.

"Neither do I, but if they're there, I can find my way! Come _on_!"

Kate stepped over the body of a soldier, a confiscated vest on her petite form.

The fight had been quick and messy, with the Yautja cloaking themselves as James and Kate hid. The soldiers had filed into the hall and right into an ambush.

Ifreet, Jegoret and Inaria had opened fire on them, cutting off their escape, as the others then opened fire from the other side of the hall. Kradak hadn't fired his plasma gun, preferring to use hand-to-hand weapons, a habit that had earned him his reputation as a fierce warrior.

It was over in seconds, but then a reinforcement group came down the hall, right where Kate and James were hiding. James had throwing himself at Kate, pushing into another hall as the other team opened fire. Kate's thigh had been grazed, but she opened fire on the other team as the Yautja harried to help. James grabbed another gun and took down the rest of the team. The Yautja had found them there, slumped in the hall, panting, Kate bleeding form her thigh.

James had ripped part of his sleeve and had tied it around the wound.

"From what I know, your wounds heal extremely fast," said James. "It should be closed in an hour or so."

"Oh, goodie," muttered Kate as he tied the crude bandage tight.

She stood up and tested her eight on it, "Well, if I limp, don't blame me."

"**_To show pain is a weakness_**," said Tisarek.

"Fuck you, you lizard-faced, scaly-assed dipshit," snarled Kate. Kate was really beginning to dislike this Tisarek.

"**_Kradak_**!" came Inaria's voice, jerking Kate back to the present. "**_The humans are trying to communicate, but I cannot understand them_**."

"Here, let me," said James as he hurried over and listened to the slightly bloody radio. Then he went pale, "Oh no."

"What?" asked Kate.

"Oh, Kate," said James. "You're such a brave child but I don't think I should-"

Kate grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and slammed him into the wall, "WHAT?!"

"You're friends…"

"What, James!" screamed Kate.

"…they've figured out your trying to get them loose and…they're going to kill them."

Kate stepped away from James, pale and trembling.

Then she took off running down the hall as fast as her legs could carry her.

"Kate!" shouted James. "You'll never make it in time! KATE!"

She ignored him as she vanished around the corner.

Kradak didn't hesitate. He ran after her.

His clan followed soon after, but Tisarek hesitated, clenching and unclenching his fists. This human female had to go, she was a weakness to Kradak and thus to their father.

If not Kradak, then this…Kate, would die.

Screaming.

(Evil! EEEVIL!)

Naomi was doing various stunts on the vertical bars when, suddenly, she dropped noiselessly to the ground, her head cocked to one side.

"What is it?" asked Shane.

As one, Billy, David, and Naomi whirled to face the door, then ducked behind some equipment.

Shane stood and turned, as the door hissed open, and a hail of bullets slammed into the room. Five of his men went down instantly and the rest ducked for cover.

"What the fuck?" shouted one man, named Spencer.

"Who is it?" shouted Andrea, the only woman in the group.

"I don't care who it is, return fire!" shouted Shane.

The remaining soldiers all whirled and returned fire, and screams and cries were heard and some guns stopped firing.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" shouted Naomi, covering her hand with her hands. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

"Naomi!" shouted Billy. "Lookout!"

Naomi screamed as grenade bounced against the wall and landed practically in her lap.

Suddenly two strong hands grabbed her and pulled her away.

The grenade went off and Shane threw himself on top of Naomi.

"We can't get out of here!" said Shane. "That's the only exit!"

"Help's coming," said Naomi smiling. "They wont know what hit 'em, and I don't pity 'em."

Hope skidded to a stop when she saw the dozen-or-so men firing into the gym.

"No," she screamed. "NO!" She lifted her two guns and opened fire, cutting down man after man.

Half of them turned to open fire on her, but she ducked behind the wall. Mercarian saw the tears streaming down her face and heard her mantra, "Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, please don't be dead!"

He hissed and launched himself at the men that rounded the corner, tearing into them with teeth, claws and his huge tail blade. Blood and gore flew as Hope and Mercarian showed mo mercy upon the men who threatened her friends.

Then two explosions ripped into the men form the other side.

Kate heard the gunfire as she ran down the corridor, adrenaline pumping through her veins. She pulled two grenades from the vest, pulled the pins and tossed them into the corridor.

She stepped behind the corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks, muttering, "Kill you, kill you, kill you!"

A man whirled around the corner and raised his gun, but Kate ducked under him, whirled and slammed her foot into his stomach, then her fist into his face, smashing his nose and sending shards of bone into his brain, killing him.

Another man came around the corner and Kate grabbed a long knife from the falling man's waist and swung hard, digging the sharp metal deep into the man's chest, between his ribcage, and tore it violently out.

She whirled around the corner, stooping to pick up a gun and opened fire, just as Kradak arrived. He opened fire with his plasma gun and took out his spear gun. Then the other Yautja, and a terrified, exhausted James, arrived.

The soldiers were trapped between a Yautja hunting clan, a pissed off Xenomorph King, and two superhuman creatures whose friends they threatened.

They didn't stand a chance.

(The humans, that is.)

(Not the Yautja and the Xeno king and…oh you get the picture!)

Kate fell to her knees, panting, clutching a bloody knife in her hands.

Hope dragged herself to her feet and stumbled over to her small friend. Kradak looked up from where he was cleaning a skull and paused, his plasma gun activating. His this human threatened Kate, she would die.

Mercarian swallowed the last piece of flesh and tossed the arm bones to the ground, turning his massive head to watch as Hope picked her way to her friend.

"Kate?"

Kate jerked like someone had stuck her finger in an electric circuit. She slowly dragged her blank gaze from the blood and gore around her to the sweaty raven-haired young woman.

"Hope?"

She cast the bloody knife away and leaped into Hope's arms, the two sobbing with joy.

"Hope," sobbed Kate. "Oh my God. Hope. I was so scared. I was so alone."

Hope hugged her friend tight, "Katie. Oh Kate."

Hope dragged herself away and went reluctantly over to the gym doors, "Naomi? Billy? David?"

"Hope?" called Naomi. "My god, hope, is that you?"

Hope stepped into the ruined gym and gingerly stepped over five bodies, "Yeah, it's me, and Kate. We're-oof!:

Nomi had tacked Hope and sent her flying to the floor.

Naomi sobbed, "I thought I'd never see you again! I…oh God, Hope. What have the done to us? What's going on?"

"Hope?" Hope looked up to see David and Billy walking over to her.

Kate wandered into the room and she fell onto the other two. Then three hands reached out, grabbed the two boys and dragged them into a sobbing embrace.

Shane, Kradak, Mercarian, James and the others stared at them, the three race's hatred for each other forgotten in the face of such powerful emotions as these five teenagers had for one other.

"They're children," said James. "Just children. What have we done?"

Everyone looked at him as the five rose to their feet.

Hope turned slowly, "Let's find somewhere safe to rest for a while, 'cause these guys are gonna be all over us in a second. We need to get our strength back, and find some food, if we can. From now on, we're friends, we're in this together. So that means no killing one another. And you," she turned to James. "Kate told me you know what's happened to us. You better get ready to spill it, big time."

James gulped.

Now, picture this as the camera's POV, as we back away form our 'heroes' slowly, then turned and fast-forward down a corridor, traveling forward. We go into an elevator and hear faint gunshots and screams, then an inhuman screech and then silence.

We zoom down the elevator and come to the lowest level of the ship, the darkest and most foreboding level.

We zoom along the dark, deserted hallways and then slow down abruptly, the camera panning up to see, on the window of a large steel door:

**G 1**

We pass through the window (Ahh the wonders of computer graphics) and enter a room. Upon exploration, we encounter a large glass tube. We go for a closer look and see a shadowy form moving within the murky green-black water, and a tail slaps the glass.

We see it has a neighbor and go to the next tube. We see a clawed hand scrape along the glass. A third tank reveals long spines that rub against the wall. A fourth chamber shows no movement, we then pan onto a fifth tube…

It is smashed open, and liquid still drips form the jagged glass. We here a screech a thud and the camera whips dizzyingly around to see a demonic face pressed against the glass of the fourth tube as it scrabbles violently to reach us.

The camera back up, watching the shrieking beast, then passes through the door once more. As if frightened, the camera hurried down the hall and turns a corner, only to see a horrifying sight.

Several unrecognizable corpses lay in the middle of the darkened corridor, a heap of mutilated, glistening flesh and exposed muscle and bone and entrails, their blood mingling in an ever-widening pool. The scent of death hands in the air. (But you can't smell it! It's television, not smelevision…ha, ha, ha…smelevision, smell- oh forget it!) There's blood and gore on the walls, splashed everywhere. So much blood, too much. There are bloody drag marks leading away form the scene, and footprints. Bestial footprints, that lead from the carnage around the corner.

Suddenly the sound of smashing glass reaches us and the camera whirls back to the direction of the G1 room. We hear thudding footsteps and then the sound of something slamming against the door, accompanied by the sound of rending metal.

The camera whirls again in time to see a pair of bloody jaws rush in and….

_KSSSSSSSHHHHHH!_

Genesis One has awoken.

**Ahhh! Chilling! Man! I got shivers just writing that little bit!**

**Well, finally, Genesis One, the super Genesis after our five teens, Genesis Zero, has woken up.**

**And believe me, they fit perfectly into the T-X's saying, 'Anything he can do, she can do better', except imagine the T101 is Genesis Zero, and the T-X is Genesis One.**

**If anyone has a few huge twists to add, don't be afraid to tell me! I welcome your inputs!**

**And don't forget to review, review, review!**

**Luv ya all!**

**CrimsonMistress!**

**XXXX **


	4. Chapter III

Disclaimer: I own everything except….not.

Okay, sorry it's been a while, but I went on a short holiday, sue me. No! Wait! Don't!

Anyway, here's the next chappie. It's not an action chapter, more an explanation chapter, where they finally reveal the history behind Genesis Zero… and how they 'died'. It's a bit depressing as they explain everything. Well, not exactly everything, not right away.

PS, I am aware of a few mistakes in my last chapter. If you think I should fix them, tell me and I will. But if you're smart enough to figure it out, let it go. Come on people! I'm only human!

PPS, Thank you all for the reviews! Keep em coming, I really need the encouragement. Also, Blackdawn, thanks for the help, but please, put a _little_ emotion in your reviews. You're starting to scare me. No offense meant of course.

David and Billy were digging into the huge food supply in the mess hall, cramming their faces full as only boys can.

The Yautja and Xenomorph King would not stand close to each other and the human soldiers looked so tense, that if someone so much as farted, there'd be a thousand rounds shot off before you could say 'It wasn't me!'.

All in all, it wasn't too bad.

How the alliance had come about was kinda funny, if you looked back on it.

}Flashback{

No sooner had Hope finished saying her bit, then Mercarian had turned on the Yautja with a roar.

They all activated their plasma guns and were about to fire, but Kate and Hope had jumped in the middle, and David, Naomi and Billy were holding Mercarian back.

"Mercarian!" snarled Hope, grabbing his face in her hands and forcing him to look her in the eye. "You swore you would not hurt any of my friends. Kate is my friend, and those…they are her friends, too! So they're my friends! Are you going to go back on your word already?"

They are hard meat, hissed Mercarian. They kill many of my kind.

"Back off, Mercarian!" snarled Hope, digging her heels in as he started forward again. "Cool it!"

Hope, hissed Mercarian. Release me!

No, Mercarian! shouted Hope in his mind. Calm down! We need all the help we can get to survive! I am not one of your race, I am not one of your subjects, and I will not do as you say. Listen to the reason in my words! STOP IT!

Mercarian slowly relaxed, hissing and snarling.

Kate turned to see Hope had the beast under control so she turned to Kradak.

"You hear that?" said Kate. "He's her friend. So he's my friend, and you gave your word to help us, _prince_ Kradak. So stand down!"

Kradak growled and clicked, "**_It is prey_**."

"It is a friend!"

"**_Kate_**."

"Kradak."

Kradak sighed and deactivated his plasma gun, the rest following slowly and, in Notak and Tisarek's case, with great reluctance and distaste.

Shane had watched the exchange with wide eyes, then, as Yautja and Xeno King turned their gaze to him and his team, his finger jumped to the trigger.

"STOP IT!"

Everyone swung to look at Hope.

"I don't care whatever hatred you've had between you," she snarled, "but it ends here and now! We have _got_ to work together! We are allies now! We need each other to survive in this hell, so we put aside our differences and work together, do you understand?"

"**_We do not-_**"

"Shut up Tisarek!" shouted Kate. "And don't even think about it, Notak!"

"I said, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

"Yes ma'am," said Shane.

Kradak nodded his heads stiffly.

Hope glared at Mercarian, "Well?"

He hissed, the jerked his head once, Very well.

There was a silence.

"Now what?" said Billy.

}End flashback{

Introductions had been made, and the three girls had had another tearful reunion, which had the boys rolling their eyes and looking disgusted.

Then Hope had gotten serious.

}Flashback{

"We need somewhere safe to hole up and come up with a plan or something. Somewhere secure, that we can guard, but not get trapped."

"Mess Hall, the on the scientists use for breaks. Not too big, with one main door, one back door. Should be okay."

Hope shrugged, "Anyone got a better idea?"

One of 'Yautja', as Kate had called them, stepped forward, his posture defiant.

Mercarian hissed and moved a little in front of Hope and the humans tensed, but it was the leader, Prince Kradak, who had stopped him, placing his long spear against the Yautja's chest.

"**_Do not even think it, Tisarek_**," he had snarled. "**_I will gut you where you stand if you so much as utter one sound_**."

Tisarek stood down.

Hope had been stunned that she had understood the guttural, clicking speech, and it was clear the others, namely the humans and Mercarian, couldn't.

Hope rolled her eyes, "I see we're going to have some social problems."

"Yeah, I mean, you're just hated enemies! Get over it!" said Billy and Kate giggled. "Aha!" said Billy proudly. "I still have the gift to make the midget laugh. That's something at least!"

Kate stopped laughing.

"OW!" shouted Billy as she pinched him in the arm. "That hurt!"

"Good," said Kate, nodding. "It was s'posed to."

Hope shook her head, "Okay kiddies. Off to the Mess Hall we go. Now, everyone hold hands so we don't get lost! James, lead the way."

They set off, with Kate skipping along beside Kradak, singing 'We're Off to See the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!' until Naomi threatened to thump her head so hard, her feet would poke out through the ceiling of the level below.

Kate shut up and put Kradak between herself and Naomi.

Hope smiled, '_No matter what they've done to us, we're still the old gang_.'

}End Flashback{

They had reached the Mess Hall with no problems. Shane had said they'd evacuate everyone away form the area and probably send a team after them, which could take over an hour, considering how big the ship was. Hope didn't want to make any plans until she knew the exact details of their situation, and what the hell the scientists had done to her friends and herself. Now a soldier and a Yautja stood at both doors, and all of their senses were on high alert.

Now it was time for the moment of truth.

Hope munched on a chicken leg as she walked over to the middle of the mess hall.

"Okay, James, spill it."

Everyone turned as one and the boys looked reluctant, but stopped eating and wondered over to James, who sat on a chair wearily.

Kate sat down like an eager school child ready for a story, except she looked like she was preparing for a death in the family. Kradak set in a chair beside her, a hand on her shoulder.

Naomi tossed her apple core in the bin as she went past and sat on the table.

Hope stood silently against the wall, Mercarian crouched beside her.

"Almost fifty years ago, we tried something like this," said James. "We took DNA from a prison planet, where one Ellen Ripley had died. We cloned her, and the Queen Xenomorph inside."

Mercarian lifted his head and hissed curiously. Hope placed a hand on his huge, horned crown and incuriously stroked it, to soothe her own tension.

Well, he wasn't complaining.

The Other.

I know.

"But there ," said James. "A ship called the _Betty_ brought in crews for hosts to the alien species. The doctor in charge…he and his superiors wanted to use the Xenomorph…as weapons of war."

No one said anything, but the sense of disgust filled Hope's mind from Mercarian, and her other four friends. The human soldiers glanced at each other apprehensively. Kradak and his crew had no expression, for their masks hid their faces, and Kradak had steadfastly refused to take his off and Kate had smiled at him, making Hope suspicious, but if Kate trusted him, then she would.

And she would kick her ass if Kate was wrong.

"We had taken the queen from Ripley when it was still not gestated and watched her grow and allowed her to produce eggs. We used them on the human cargo, infested them, and got drone Xeno, but no Praetorian."

"Pray whatsits?" asked Billy.

"Praetorian," said Shane. "Bigger, stronger, faster and damn more hard to kill than the Drones, the average Xenomorph. They guard the queen."

"Named after the bodyguards of ancient Roman emperors, right?" asked Hope.

"That's right," said James. "I think."

Hope nodded, "Man, I hated history classes."

"Please continue," said David, speaking for the first time in a while.

James swallowed. "The subject…Ripley had memories, and she tried to warn us, but the ones in charge didn't listen. Then the Xeno escaped from their cells and started massacring everyone, they freed their queen too. They evacuated the place, but many people died in the attempt to escape. From what I know, both the head scientists died, and there was some kind of hybrid baby, because the queen and Ripley shared gifts."

"She had acidic blood and was in tune with the Hive and the queen gave human birth," said Hope.

Everyone looked at her.

"Merc told me," she said, blushing under their scrutiny.

"His Majesty hasn't said a word since we met," said David.

"He has," said Hope. "You just haven't been able to hear him. Or perhaps 'hear' is the wrong term."

She glanced at the black beast crouched by her side and nudged him.

He hissed at her and nudged back before turning his gaze on the others.

Greetings.

"AHHH!" shrieked Kate glomping Kradak. "There's a voice in my head!"

Hope chuckled as everyone jumped and looked around wildly.

You are Katherine, yes?

"Don't call me that!" snapped Kate, un-glomping Kradak to glare at him. "I _hate_ that name."

Mercarian gave his equivalent of a smile and Hope sighed, shaking her head. Kradak looked stunned that Kate had attached herself to him, not matter how brief it was.

"Uh, I believe James was telling the story," said Billy.

"Huh?" said James, blinking. "What? Oh, yeah. Well, it was patchy. We know the crew from the Betty and Ripley teamed up, and they encountered the hybrid infant and killed it, after the hybrid had killed the Queen, thinking Ripley was its mother."

"Messed up family," said David quietly.

"Then they crashed the ship onto earth, wiping out a sizable chunk of land and sea," said James. "But the superiors weren't happy and decided to try again."

"And then we came along," said Hope.

"That's right," said James. "You came along." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "We took the DNA of five teenagers, teenagers who had died before Ripley's time, in the 21st Century, and thus would have had no contact with the Xenomorph. They had been…"

"Murdered," said Hope angrily. "Killed when they were eighteen. Continue."

"We took the DNA of the teenagers and melded it with the DNA of various earth predatory animals. And thus, we got you five. We named you Genesis Zero."

Kate shivered and Billy moved to wrap his arms around her, but Kradak got there first, drawing the petite teenager into his strong embrace.

Tisarek growled, but another, the only female named Inaria, elbowed him and hissed in their own tongue for him to shut it.

"You began as infants in tubes; for we cloned you outside the womb. You grew in the tubes and we freed you at the time you would have been 'born'. You grew extremely quickly. By the age of three months, you looked the age of three years. Soon, in less than two years, you had the physique of children the age of ten. But then you started to slow down immensely. We thought that your bodies may have been trying to make up for your speedy growth, but it just kept going. In fact, though you may be eighteen in your minds, you're about twenty five."

"How do they come into this?" asked Kate, jerking her thumb at Mercarian and the Yautja.

James sighed, "Well, we had just had an immense success few months ago. We had not only captured a party of Predators, but a strange alien as well. One we had never seen before. It didn't take us long to figure out he was a King. The possibilities were enormous!"

Mercarian shifted and his muscles rippled. Hope rubbed his head again and he quieted, but was clearly still edgy.

Hush, Mercarian, she said softly in his mind.

He sighed and curled his tail around her leg, Very well.

"Then Lawson got this insane idea to put their DNA inside the teenagers to see how it would work, and, apparently, it worked extremely well."

"Why don't we remember any of this?" asked Hope quietly.

"We don't know. You were sleeping one night then, boom, your memories had come. We're still not sure how it had happened, after so long, then suddenly you remembered the day you changed, you became very aggressive or withdrawn or sullen. We knew then that you remembered. In fact, it was only a week or so after we had blended your DNA with theirs, so that may have triggered it."

There was a tense silence.

"What were we made for?" asked David softly, as if dreading the answer.

James lowered his head, ashamed, "Weapons. You were going to be used as prototype warriors, foot soldiers against the Predators and the Xenomorph. You could be cloned easily and mass produced, so any that died on the field could be replaced with more."

"Fucking bastard," spat Andrea, the only female of Shane's group. "You sick motherfuckers. They're just kids! Did you even take into consideration-"

"We were dead."

Everyone turned to see Hope staring off into space. Indeed, all five of them were subdued, silent, sad.

"We died on June 14th 2004, in New York, in a restaurant."

Everyone was still as Hope continued in a shaking voice.

"We were on holiday. We needed a break from pressures of school and things. We wanted to have some fun. We were eating; the boys were stuffing their faces again."

A ghost of a smile flickered over her face, even as tears filled her eyes as she remembered."

"Naomi was saying she'd rather blow her money shopping that feeding the livestock. Kate was flirting with some guy at the counter and I was watching them all, like I always did."

A shadow crossed her face and she swallowed.

"Suddenly three guys stood up near the door and threw off their trench coats, revealing some big fucking bombs strapped to their bodies, saying they were gonna kill us all, because we were dirty, filthy creatures, going about our mindless lives like slaves to a non-existent empire. They said they were our God, our Angels of Deliverance, and they were going to deliver us all to the glory of Satan in Hell."

She took a deep breath, "They pulled a gun and started shooting people at random. I saw a little girl with her chest blown open, and a father throw himself over his family, dieing to protect them. One of them shot a mother and killed her and the baby in her arms with one bullet. David threw Naomi and me to the floor and the guy at the bar dragged Kate to the ground, dieing in the process."

She bowed her head and clenched her fists, "I was so angry. I wasn't afraid. I was infuriated. How dare these men, these humans, play God, and take lives like this? How dare they think to command our fate? Who were they to do this?"

She lifted her head, "The cops came, but they couldn't do anything. They had retreated further into the restaurant, killing as they went. I wasn't going to let them do that, not without fighting them, and the others felt the same.

"David went up and grabbed one guy and dragged him to the floor before the other two could react, killing him with his own gun, careful to avoid the bomb. He grabbed the gun and rolled behind the counter as us girls got the other people out. I don't remember much, there was screaming, and gunshots, and shouting. A bullet grazed my arm, and it hurt, it bled. But I couldn't leave my friends. Kate, Naomi and I went back inside, against the police's wishes."

She scowled a bit, as if trying to remember. Everyone watched her with a tense silence, glancing now and again at the seemingly catatonic other four.

"Billy was wrestling with one guy for the trigger on his bomb, just as the other guy came to bear. We screamed, but Billy was too slow. The other guy shot him, and he went down. I grabbed a knife and lunged at the man, me and David taking him down. We wrestled with him, and the guy shot David in the stomach. His blood went all over me. I stabbed the man over and over, getting his blood on me too. I was screaming as I rolled away, screaming and staring at David's wound as I tried to stop the blood, but he was dead. I heard another gunshot and I turned to see Naomi go down, her eyes wide with surprise."

A tear slid down her cheek and Naomi slid off the table, onto the floor, her eyes wide as she remembered, her hand pressed to her chest.

"Kate screamed so loud and the man turned to aim his gun at her, but I leaped at him, taking him down, raising the knife to plunge into him."

Kate sobbed and covered her face with her hand, "The gun went off."

"It hurt," said Hope. "He shot me. I felt the ripping agony in my side as I fell to the floor. Kate whirled on him, sliding her own knife deep into his side, but he picked up my knife and slashed her throat. She fell to the floor, and her blood mingled with Billy's and David's and Naomi's in a huge pool. The other two's blood didn't even touch the pool. It was just theirs."

Hope was openly crying now as she lent against the wall, "I ignored the pain as the last man held his side, grinning insanely. I felt something touch my fingers and I saw it was the trigger the last man and Billy had been wrestling over. Suddenly the pain went away, and felt like I was floating. I knew I was dieing, but I didn't care. My friends were dead, and that man was still alive, and that's all that mattered."

"Oh Hope," breathed Kate. "You didn't."

Hope swallowed, "I didn't care anymore, Kate. All I cared about was that the man who killed my friends was still alive. I called out to him. He saw I had the trigger. He froze, and I smiled. I said, 'See you in Hell'…and I did it. I pushed the button. And right before the flames reached me, I saw my blood mingle with the pool."

Kate sobbed, covering her mouth with a shaking hand. Naomi covered her face with her hands and David clenched his in his hair. Billy looked somber and like he was about to burst into tears.

James swallowed hard and Andrea wiped her eyes, sniffing. The men looked away, heads bowed.

"We were happy," said Hope. "I think it was Heaven. I'm not sure. I don't care. Then…then I opened my eyes and I was in that cell. It was like…like they'd realized they'd made a mistake. Like they'd realized I shouldn't belong, like they thought I should fulfill my promise to that man, and sent me to hell. This _is_ hell. This…" she gestured around her, "is hell."

She broke down, sobbing, and Mercarian pulled her into his protective embrace, cooing softly to her. She had helped him. She had saved him. And he felt the overwhelming urge to make sure nothing happened to her. He didn't understand this concept of 'heaven' and 'hell', but he knew that she had been happy, and now she was tortured.

"I guess…I guess that explains how you acted," said James, as if to himself. "You were like zombies, mindless, clumsy. We programmed you like machines. Then, after the incident, you were alert, active, intelligent. Perhaps it's because you were missing your souls."

"Our souls," snarled Naomi. "I guess that's something you left out in your little fucked up design, huh?"

"What do you mean, 'programmed us'?" asked David.

James blinked, "We…trained you. You have expert military and survival knowledge, you can survive in the harshest conditions, excel in the most difficult of battles. You were trained to be warriors. The best of the best."

"Ugh," said Naomi. "'Programmed us'. You make us sound like fucking animals. Not even animals, things, to be expended at will, cause you can just fucking make more. Jesus."

"Hey, I've got a question," said Hope, wiping her tears away. "I heard that dick Weiss mentioning something about evolution. What did that mean?"

James scowled, puzzled, "I have no idea."

Hope eyed him, "You had better not be lying, little human."

James gulped, "I'm not. I don't know anything about any evolution."

"You said Lawson and Weiss and some main computer would have more information," said Kate.

"Yes," said James.

Hope rubbed the back of her neck and looked at Kradak, "Is it okay if we take a minor detour to the main computer as we go to your ship?"

"**_We must be quick_**," said Kradak simply.

"Hay," said Naomi. "What _are_ we going to do?"

"What?" said Hope.

"We're kinda just naturally _assuming_ that the Yautja will take us with them. What if they don't?" asked Naomi. "And what about His Majesty there. I honestly don't think that the Yautja are gonna like him coming along. What about them?" She gestured to the soldiers and James. "Are they coming? Seriously, Hope. We need to think about this. The Yautja are a totally different and – if my assumption is correct – hostile race that obviously doesn't like humans _or_ Xenomorph. Why should they take us along? Why should they be our knights in shining armor? We're given them nothing."

"**_On the contrary_**," said Kradak slowly. "**_Kate has helped me free my people and myself. I owe her a debt and have given my word to help her and her friends._**"

"Unless you're all-powerful with no one to question you, and Tisarek's an objection to that, I don't think you're people are going to tolerate five freaks, seven humans and a Xeno King," said Kate quietly, sadly. "And you've helped us. You're debt has been paid."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Billy. "Now, come on. Let's not give them _more_ reasons to dump us. I mean, I'm sure they have enough of their own!"

They were silent, subdued as they looked at the Yautja hunters.

Kradak was torn. He wanted to take them, but their arguments were just. His father would possible exile him for bringing so many outsiders with him. And for his face, his father may even kill him.

Jegoret clicked softly, then said, "**_But you are _our_ friends. Kate is _my_ friend. I will help her of my own violation for the sake of friendship_**."

"**_Kradak_**," said Inaria in a soft voice. "**_If they stay, they will all be killed. The humans for helping us, the….Genesis Zero for being what they are, as well as the hard meat king. We cannot leave them here. They have helped us. We cannot leave them to die. They have suffered enough. Besides, think of how much we could lean from one another_**."

"**_Kradak_**," growled Tisarek. "**_I may be your underling, but you must listen to me I this. They will corrupt our people! You cannot take them with us! Father will kill you for sure. Especially bringing a hard meat_**."

Kradak clicked softly, unsure. His duty lay to his people first and foremost, but he desperately wanted to help Kate and her friends. Yes, even the humans and Xeno King.

"What are they saying?" asked Shane.

"Shh," whispered Naomi. "We mustn't try and sway them this is their decision alone."

"You are well aware we'll all die if they leave us here," said Spencer.

"Well duh," said Hope. "But we have to honor their decision too. We aren't of their race. Naomi's right, I was assuming they would help us. But I was wrong. It is entirely their decision, and they had yet to make it."

"We could always kill all but one and _make_ it help is," said Billy.

"Do whisper louder, guys," said David sarcastically. "They may hear you and _that_'ll sway their decision all right."

"I was kidding!" said Billy.

Kate poked her tongue out at David and glared at Billy, but refused to look at Kradak, "What do we do if they refuse?"

Hope blinked, "I…don't know."

"There must be ships of some sort," said David. "Something we can use to escape."

"Evacuation ships," said Shane softly. "There might be a cargo ship or two. But guys, my and my men, and woman, are dead. It's that simple. Because in the gym, they were ready to kill us. They _did_ kill five of my men. We were expendable. Now we're obsolete."

"Very flattering," muttered Andrea.

Kradak sighed, "**_I do not know what to do_**."

Notak rattled angrily, "**_The decision is easy, prince. Kill them now. Then we will not have to worry_**."

Kate heard this and her head flew up. She whirled and glared at Notak, but Hope pulled her back, so she was between the blonde and the Yautja, murmuring to her.

Kate spat something back and Hope smiled and ruffled her hair, speaking again softly.

They were such a tight knit group, even after so much had changed. They did not observe each other as being worthy of ridicule because of what had happened to them, for they knew it was beyond their control.

Kradak glanced at the Xeno King and saw he was staring right back, breathing even as he regarded the prince.

Mercarian.

Kradak had heard that name before.

Suddenly he was shaken back to the present when Inaria and Notak began to growl menacingly at each other. What Notak had said about killing them had disturbed the female. She has s high sense of honor, to her people, but to these others as well.

Mercarian looked at Kate, who was twiddling her thumbs as Billy and David argued softly about something. Hope had her eyes closed and was leaning back on a chair and Naomi looked ready to decapitate something. James was staring off into space and the human soldiers looked tense.

Mercarian looked like nothing. He just crouched against the wall, watching them all.

"Perhaps," said James tentatively and the others, those who could understand him at least, looked at him.

"Perhaps if they take us, we could start an alliance," said James. "You know. Peace between humans and Yautja. And perhaps a few Xeno."

Hope paused as she listened to Mercarian.

"Xenomorph are mindless creatures, like ants. Their only purpose is to serve the hive."

"Well that's a sucky existence," said Naomi. "No teenaged rebellion. Ugh, that was a highlight of my…previous life."

"Nomi (not misspell, a nickname), you never got past you 'teenaged rebellion'," said Kate.

"You 'rebellion' consisted of buying clothes that didn't match and kissing some guy with a nose ring," snapped Naomi back.

"It was rebellious!"

"For a ten-year-old pretty princess."

"I resent that!"

"I resent you!"

"Whoa, down girls," said Billy. "Christ, come on."

Naomi grinned and pulled Kate into a headlock, "Just mucking around. Jeez _mother_."

"Mmmph!" said Kate, flailing. "Lemme go!"

"Let her go, Nomi," said Hope. "Before Kradak goes homicidal."

Naomi glanced up and saw Kradak glared at her from under his mask and let the petite blonde go.

"Oh, come on, we were just having some fun. Not like she would have made a challenge or nothing."

"Argh!" shouted Kate, talking her friend to the floor.

Hope rolled her eyes as David and Billy waded in to pull them apart.

Everyone stared as the two shook off the boys and sniffed, crossing their arms.

"Okay," said Shane, eyes wide.

"Well humans and Yautja then," said James, coming back to the present topic. "Nothing would stand against us. If anything threatened one race, the other would help out. We could share technology and knowledge! The possibilities are endless-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Billy, turning to him. "Not you too, down, sit boy. Sheesh. They haven't even agreed yet. Besides, the Yautja seem pretty well off."

"What was that you said about not giving them any more reasons to dump us, Bill?" said Naomi, rolling her eyes and brushing her hair back with her fingers.

Hope shook her head, "Good Lord. Why do I put up with you all?"

"Because my intelligence, cuteness and witty charm make up for their thick-headed, butt-ugly tactlessness?" said Kate sweetly.

"Look, Kate, don't make me thump you," said Naomi, waving her fist threateningly.

"I'll sick Kradak on you," snapped Kate back and Naomi dropped her fist.

Everyone laughed.

"**_What did the human say_**?" asked Kradak suddenly and Kate looked at him.

"She said she'd thump…oh, you mean James. Peace," she said. "Between humans and Yautja. The sharing of technology and knowledge. Alliance ands support for each other. Apparently, Xeno are both of your enemies-"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," said David.

Kate wrinkled her nose at him, and then turned back to Kradak, "We could at least give it a shot, you think?"

"**_What about you_**?" asked another Yautja, the quiet one named Ifreet. "**_If you remain, the humans will kill you_**."

Hope merely shrugged.

"**_You will come with us_**," said Kradak. "**All_ of you_**."

Tisarek and Notak hissed and clicked in outrage, but Kradak whirled on them and grabbed their throats.

"**I_ am Prince_**," he snarled at them. "**I_ make the decisions! _I_ rule this hunt! _You_ follow _me_! _This_ is my decision, it is _final_, and you will _abide_ by it or _die_!_**"

The two Yautja clawed at his hands as he slowly lifted them onto their toes, and then dropped them to the floor.

Kate whooped, "We're saved!" She jumped on the table and danced.

Naomi pushed her off the table. Kate tackled her again and they wrestled on the floor.

"Enough you two," said Hope, but she was grinning madly. She turned to Kradak, "We can never thank you enough."

"Tell him we owe him our lives," said Shane. "And that our debt can never be repaid."

Hope relayed the message and Kradak nodded, "**_Living among our people will be hard. You will have to fight hard, learn quickly, or you will die_**."

"Sounds like summer school," said Kate nonchalantly, causing everyone to laugh again, or the humans at least.

She and Naomi got up off the floor and brushed themselves off.

Hope shook her head and turned to James, "Who's the guy in charge?"

"Huh? Oh, Lawson. He's the one who came up with all this."

"Fine," said Hope. "Everyone, get some rest. We'll head out for the Yautja ship after we've gotten some shut eye. Keep an eye out for Lawson. I want him. And you," she turned and pointed at the one called Tisarek. "Shut up."

He jerked and Kradak chuckled, as did Jegoret, Ifreet and Inaria, the other two Yautja glaring at Kradak from under their masks.

Kradak ignored him, "**_If we are to rest, then we will need guards_**."

"One of each," said Naomi. "A….Genesis Zero, a Yautja and a human. That way, we're all happy."

"And no one kill anyone else, unless they try to kill you first," said Billy, yawning.

"Here," said James, going over to a storage cupboard and pulling out extra linen and blankets.

Billy took one, "Well, not exactly the Four Seasons, but it'll do."

He settled down in the corner, and flopped into his makeshift bed under a table.

"I'll take first watch," said Naomi.

"Me to," said Shane.

Inaria nodded, "**_I, too, will guard first_**."

"Fine," said Kate. "One hour shifts each. After an hour, wake someone of your own… race up. Then get some shut eye."

Hope lay down and Mercarian curled up around her slowly, as if waiting for her reaction. She only yawned and snuggled closer.

"Aww, Merc's just a big, black teddy bear!" cooed Billy.

Merc raised his head to look at him and bared his teeth.

"A big, black, _vicious_ teddy bear that is very strong and could rip me to pieces if he wanted to!" amended Billy hastily. "And if he wants to snuggle with Hope, then that's perfectly fine with me! Not that he needed my permission, of course-mmph!"

Kate had lobbed a pillow at him and it had smacked him in the head, "Shuddup!" She yawned and pulled the blanket over her head.

Kradak and his clan-mates lay near a heater in the corner of the room, to gain heat for their cold-blooded bodies. He had his eyes closed when something pushed its way under his arm to snuggle against his side.

He glanced down and saw Kate wrap her arms around him and rest her head on his chest.

"Is this okay?" she whispered.

"**_Yes_**."

"Thank you," she whispered. "You've saved all of our lives."

She smiled and snuggled closer as he wrapped and arm around her, clicking deep in his throat, since his mandibles no longer existed. It still puzzled him why the scientists had changed him, but he was not ready to broach the subject. He glanced down at Kate. She may have been small, but as she said, she had great strength, perhaps not in her body, but in her soul. She was willing to let him be the judge of her fate. She had so willingly gone into a subject that had placed her apart from her race, her family and friends, her own time. Perhaps it would be soon time for him to do the same.

He sighed and shifted to lay down flat and Kate snuggled closer, smiling.

Naomi sat beside Shane as he gnawed on a piece of meat.

She was examining her fingernails, or, at least, it looked like it, she was secretly watching Kate snuggle with Kradak and Hope snuggle with Mercarian, and ogling Shane out of the corner of her eyes (We girls can multitask. It's a gift!), when suddenly she sat upright.

"Hang ten," she said suddenly, loudly.

"What?" said Hope, jerking upright, startling Mercarian, who coiled tighter and hissed. There was a bang and Billy rolled on the floor, having hit his head on the underside of the table. Kate jumped and brained herself on Kradak's chin, yelping in pain.

Naomi turned to James, "If we're twenty-five years old, and all this shit that you say has happened has actually happened as you say it has, how come we were stark naked when we woke up?"

The five stared at each other, porcessing what Naomi said, and then Kate turned bright red as they all turned as one to James, who also had the grace to blush.

"Uh, well, you _were_ clothed when you _left_ the cells, but every night your clothing was removed so you could be examined and monitored and…other stuff, you know."

Hope blushed, but Naomi hissed, "You fucking perverts."

Kate covered her face with her hands, squealing in embarrassment, "They saw me nude!"

Hope groaned, "My God," and covered her face with one hand.

Naomi sighed and lent her head against the wall, "God fucking damn it."

"Did you get pictures of the girls nude?" asked Billy suddenly. "'Cause, you see, it'll all be worth it if I got to see _them_ nude."

The girls shouted at him and Naomi belted him with a pillow until he retreated under the table.

Kate sighed and curled up next to Kradak, "Goddamn him."

"You're fucked in the head, Billy," said David. "Sooo, what about those pictures?"

"David, don't make me sick Mercarian on you," called Hope.

With that, most of the room slept, or tried to sleep, with Inaria, Shane and Naomi keeping a watchful eye open, and an attentive ear out for any signs of approaching people.

**Okay, no action this one, sorry, unless you count Naomi and Kate wrestling ! I just wanted to give you a feel of the characters, and the responsibility Kradak carries as a prince, with his 'alterations'. Now here's a question, how will his clan react when they finally see his face, and will he show it willingly?**

**A little mushy stuff in this chapter too. If it's too long, tell me. And if plot stuff doesn't work, tell me. Generally tell me if something wrong and I'll try and fix it.**

**Anyways, this was a long chapter, but there was so much I wanted to fit in. The next chapter will have the team meet up with the first of the Genesis One, I promise.**

**XXX**

**_CrimsonMistress_**

**(Here's a sneak preview of the next chapter!)__**

Two soldiers stalked towards the scientist's small mess hall hour later.

"This is bullshit," said the one at the rear. "Sending only two of us! They should bomb this whole freaking level! Flush em out, and pick em off!"

"Shh," snapped the lead one. "Be quiet! They'll hear you!"

"How?" snarled the second. "They're over five halls away, with solid steel between us and them."

"They're not humans, you dickhead!" spat the leader. "They're hearing is great! We have to scout out their exact position for the others. We don't even have to engage."

"Scout my ass," snarled the second. "We should just tear in there, taking them by surprise and-"

"Listen you worthless piece of shit!" snarled the leader, whirling on him. "We're here to scout _only_! Not engage! There are is a clan of Predators, a Xenomorph King that can alter its size, five superhuman freaks and over half a dozen highly trained soldiers in there! If we go in, they'll either kill us or catch us for information. We scout _only_! Understood?"

"What the hell?" gasped the second. "What are they doing all together?" He shook himself, "They're not going to interrogate us you idiot! If they catch us, they'll probably tear us to peaces and eat our insides as we watch!"

"I don't know about them," said a deep, sinister voice from behind him, "but I certainly will, if that is your wish."

Both men whirled and saw a monster in the hall behind them, so big, it was unable to stand at its full height, if stand was right the word.

"What…the…fuck?" gasped the leader.

"I am glad you told me where they were," it said, flexing taloned fingers. "Following their scent was tiring. Now I can _kill_ them. But first…"

Its lips peeled back and its mouth opened wide, two huge venom-tipped fangs sliding down from the roof of its mouth.

"I hunger!" it roared and lunged forward.

The men screamed and brought up their guns.


	5. Chapter IV

Disclaimer: I…uh don't own this?

Hello my darlings! Another chapter up! A special thanks to all who reviewed! I dedicate this Chapter to you! Some blood and gore in this one……actually, a bit of blood and gore in this one. The first fight between Genesis One and our heroes!!

Sorry it took so long, but I had a writers block something bad.

Naomi searched through the stores of food, her mind racing, not finding much that looked edible. She pulled out a container of some stringy white stuff that looked like demented noodles. She made a disgusted sound and moved to throw it back into the fridge.

A warm hand wrapped around hers, holding the container.

Nomi gasped as Shane reached around her, put the jar gently in the fridge and closed the door.

She whirled and glared at him, "What-"

"Shhh," he scolded, pressing a finger to her lip and jerking his thumb back to the mess hall where everyone was sleeping.

Naomi flushed guiltily, "Oops."

"What's on your mind?" said Shane, leaning against the wall.

'_Hot_', screamed Naomi's mind. "Nothing much."

"Oh yeah?" he cocked a brow.

Naomi gave herself two mental slaps, "I was just thinking about…well, about what I would have done if we hadn't died that day."

Shane scowled, "I can see how that'd make you mad."

"I was eighteen," said Naomi, frustrated. "I had my whole life ahead of me, and now that's all over."

She slumped to the floor and rested her head on her raised knees.

"What if I hadn't died? What if we had never gone to that restaurant? What if us girls had run? What if-"

"Hey," said Shane, kneeling. "Don't think of it that way. You can 'what if' yourself to death, but that wont change what's happened. But you can shape your future."

"Huh?" Naomi looked at him.

"You're different now-"

"A freak."

"No, not a freak, different," Shane sat beside her. "Everyone's different in their own way, but you…you couldn't prevent what happened to you. It's not your fault. But you can make your own future."

"Some future."

"Naomi," said Shane, slightly chastising. "Think outside the box."

"Are you a soldier or a psychologist?"

Shane chuckled, "As I was saying, the Yautja, as they're called, and us humans have been enemies for…a long time. You, you're a bridge between us, you can make peace. You have had so many doors closed to you because of what's happened, but so many more have opened that would never open to anyone else."

"You sound like my guidance councilor," said Naomi snidely.

"Just think about it."

Naomi was silent for a moment, and Shane moved to get up.

"Hey," she said, catching his wrist.

"Yeah?" he said, looking back.

"Thanks."

Shane smiled, "Hey, anything for a beauty in distress."

He left Naomi blinking in surprise, before she hurried after him.

Inaria glanced up from where she was sharpening her wrist blades when Shane and Naomi wandered out of the storage room.

Her internal clock said an hour was almost over as Naomi wandered over to her.

"Hey, you're Inaria, aren't you?"

"**_And you are Naomi_**."

"How did a smart girl like you get stuck with a bunch of grunts like these?" she jerked her thumb at the others.

Inaria chuckled, "**_The hunt has dominance in our society. I was hunting for more trophies. If my trophies age, then my stature in society drops and I would be unable to continue with my studies_**."

"Bummer," said Naomi. "Well I'm not the sciency type. I'm more the physical one." She threw a lazy punch in demonstration. "I leave the brainy stuff to David and Hope."

Inaria clicked in amusement, "**_You are such a commune group, so attuned to each other_**."

"We're buds," said Naomi.

"**_I am not familiar with this word_**."

"Buds, buddies, amigos, friends," said Naomi. "We hang all the time. Oh, well we did. But nothing will separate us. We're always there for each other. We know each other like we know ourselves." She looked at Inaria who sat in silence. "That's not the way with the Yautja?"

Inaria clicked softly, "**_No. It is not. Oh yes, we can rely on one another, but on a hunt, distrust can mean death. But we do not 'hang' as you say. Most of our lives are spent hunting and gaining honor and stature_**."

"Bummer," said Naomi. "Friends are there to have fun with. To share good times and bad, a cry and a laugh. Memories. You know."

Inaria shook her head.

Naomi sighed, "Everyone needs friends, someone they can tell stuff they'd tell no one else, someone who'd be there through thick and thin. Support, both for your body and your spirit."

"Now who sounds like a guidance councilor?" shot Shane from over his shoulder.

Naomi flipped him the bird.

"**_What was that_**?"

"Huh?"

"**_That gesture_**."

"I gave him the finger, it's pretty much an insult, but you can share it with friends."

"**_How is it performed_**?"

"It's simple. You make a fist, and raise your middle finger," Naomi demonstrated.

Inaria mimicked.

Naomi grinned, "Hey, look, you're learning intercultural gestures already! You could be, like, an ambassador or something."

Inaria clicked proudly and lowered her hand.

"I can be your friend," said Naomi suddenly. "I'll show you what it's like to have a friend, a true friend."

Inaria nodded, "**_And I will try to be your friend, Naomi_**."

"Call me Nomi," said Naomi. "All my friends do."

"**_Nomi_**."

"If I may interrupt this little pregnant mother's meeting," said Shane. "An hour's over."

Naomi yawned, "Oh good. I'm ready to hit the sack." She looked around and pointed at Kate and Kradak. "Let's wake them up."

"**_But_**," began Inaria, but Naomi was striding towards the sleeping two.

"Oh come on," she said over her shoulder. "They're probably having sick dreams about each other anyway."

She leaned over and pondered how to awaken them before Kradak eviscerated her or Kate yanked her hair out.

Inaria solved her problem by leaning over and clicking.

Kradak jerked awake as Inaria clicked at him, "**_Prince, would you guard now_**?"

Kradak glanced down at Kate as she yawned and then he looked up Naomi, who stood behind Inaria, eyeing the smaller woman.

"Wassamatter?" said Kate.

"Get up, lazy bones," said Naomi. "You're now officially using my blanket."

"Huh?" said Kate, then gasped as Naomi grabbed her blankets and pillow and went off into her own space. "Naomi!"

"Hush up, you sissy," yawned Naomi. "People are trying to sleep!"

Kate pouted, but climbed to her feet, stretching. Kradak was instantly awake and got up as well. Kate rubbed her eyes and yawned again.

"I hate getting up."

Andrea had been woken by Shane and she yawned as well, sitting up. She rolled off her blanket and allowed Shane to bunk down.

"Need to wake up," mumbled Kate. She looked around, then stumbled over to the freezer room and walked in.

"ACK!"

She came out, shivering, and squeaked "I'm awake!"

Andrea chuckled softly as Inaria lay down near the heater. Kradak sat down to check his weapons and Kate sat beside him.

His wrist-blades slid out and she blinked in surprise. He glanced at her, and then made sure they were operational before they slid back. He then pulled out a long blade and began to clean it.

"**_Weapons must be maintained_**," he said slowly. "**_If a weapon is dirty or damaged, it shows poor skills on the behalf of the owner_**."

"What if someone borrows the weapon and gives it back dirty?" asked Kate, all wide-eyed innocence.

Kradak glanced at her, then back to his blade, which he slid back into its sheath, "**_No warrior should be without a weapon. As the stature of the warrior grows, so does their range of weaponry_**."

"You really area a race of hunters, aren't you," said Kate softly.

"**_Hunting is the purpose of the Yautja_**," said Kradak. "**_Do not move_**."

He picked up his spear and held it horizontal. The ends slid out several times, so it went form two and a half feet in length to about eight or nine feet, each end tipped with a sharp tip.

Kate squeaked as the end slid between her and Kradak, but she didn't move. Kradak set the spear on his lap and began to clean it.

"It's so cool," said Kate. "May I touch it?"

He glanced at her, then nodded, "**_Be careful_**."

Kate had her fingertips skimming the smooth metal when he said that, then drew her hand away.

Kradak clicked, cocking his head.

"Better safe than sorry," said Kate, smiling tentatively.

Kradak held out one of his taloned hands and Kate blinked at it, before placing her hand in his.

He pulled gently, and she moved around his spear to sit at his side.

"**_If you are to join my people, you will get these weapons_**," he said. "**_I will teach you now_**."

Kate smiled at him and paid close attention as she explained the names and functions of each of the weapons on him. He pulled his blade back out and allowed her to hold it. It was very light, but heavy enough to be able to put force behind a blow.

**"_All of our metal is resistant to hard meat blood_**."

"Hard meat?"

Kradak gestured to the sleeping Mercarian curled around Hope.

"Oh, Xenomorph. How their blood is corrosive. I get it."

She went to touch the edge of the knife, but he grabbed her hand, startling her.

"**_Sharp,_**" he said simply.

Kate blinked at him, and then flushed, "Sorry."

Deciding to test the blade in a different way, she pulled out a strand of hair and held both ends, placing the blade in the loop she had made. She pulled down slowly, and was soon glad she hadn't touched the edge. For if she hadn't been watching, she wouldn't have been able to tell when the knife cut the hair.

Suddenly a large hand shifted through her hair and she turned her head slowly, as not to dislodge Kradak's claw.

"**_Soft_**," he said. "**_Not like Yautja hair. So different in many ways_**."

"I happen to like my hair," said Kate defensively.

"**_I am not saying I do not like it_**," he said, gently. He lifted a strand in his fingers.

Kate touched Kradak's hair, "I guess you're right. We are very different." She glanced at his weapons, and a strong of strange skulls around his waist and a necklace of teeth around his neck.

"And not just in appearances."

She sighed and placed the blade down, standing up and wandering off, feeling strangely bereft.

'_Oh for gods sake, Kate_," she though furiously. '_Not only is he a bloody alien, but he's a prince alien! He probably thinks you're ugly as sin. Face it, Katherine Amelia Hitchcock, you're doomed to die a lonely, wrinkly old spinster. You're a lost cause. You have a crush on ET for Christ's sake_!'

She sighed and wandered over to the food storage room, wondering if spacemen of the future knew how good chocolate was for curing depression.

"You like him."

Kate whirled to see Audrey sitting against the wall, her gun in her lap.

"What?"

"You like him," said Audrey again, jerked her head to the sitting Kradak, who was staring after her in puzzlement.

"And don't say you don't," said Audrey, holding up her hand as Kate opened her mouth to protest, "because you do."

Kate shook her head, "What do you know, _human_?"

"A lot more than you do, _kid_," said Audrey. "I'm twenty seven, and you're a _kid_," she said as Kate opened her mouth again.

She reached up and dragged Kate to sit down next to her.

"Look, Kate," said Audrey, "I don't know _how_ you could like him, cause from what I've heard, they're but ugly sons of bitches, no, shut up and listen." Audrey took a breath. "You may be different know, in flesh and blood, but your soul I still human, and sets yourself limitations, just like any girls. Here's my advice, Kate: follow your heart. Follow it to wherever it takes you. Hold tight to that course and never, ever let go."

Kate was silent for a long time.

"You let go, didn't you," she said softly.

Andrea closed her eyes in pain.

"And I've regretted it ever since."

They were both silent, but Kate was tactful enough not to pry.

"Uh, Audrey," she said suddenly.

"Yes?"

"I need to pee."

Audrey blinked, then laughed, "There is a lavatory nearby. I'll take you, since I need to go too."

She climbed to her feet and Kate hurried over to grab an automatic weapon.

"Kradak," she said as they passed him, "we need to go to the bathroom."

He looked at her and said nothing.

"You know. The can? The loo? Call of nature? We need to…oh forget it, we'll be back in a few minutes."

Kate rolled her eyes and she and Audrey walked towards the door of the mini-mess hall, Kradak watching them.

In the corner of the room, another pair of Yautja eyes was observing the two females as well.

Two soldiers stalked towards the scientist's small mess hall. (In my previous chapter the words 'an hour later' were here, but I cut them out. I am the author, this is my fic, and I can do anything I want! Nyah! Poke my tongue out)

"This is bullshit," said the one at the rear. "Sending only two of us! They should bomb this whole freaking level! Flush em out, and pick em off!"

"Shh," snapped the lead one. "Be quiet! They'll hear you!"

"How?" snarled the second. "They're over five halls away, with solid steel between us and them."

"They're not humans, you dickhead!" spat the leader. "They're hearing is great! We have to scout out their exact position for the others. We don't even have to engage."

"Scout my ass," snarled the second. "We should just tear in there, taking them by surprise and-"

"Listen you worthless piece of shit!" snarled the leader, whirling on him. "We're here to scout _only_! Not engage! There are is a clan of Predators, a Xenomorph King that can alter its size, five superhuman freaks and over half a dozen highly trained soldiers in there! If we go in, they'll either kill us or catch us for information. We scout _only_! Understood?"

"What the hell?" gasped the second. "What are they doing all together?" He shook himself, "They're not going to interrogate us you idiot! If they catch us, they'll probably tear us to peaces and eat our insides as we watch!"

"I don't know about them," said a deep, sinister voice from behind him, "but I certainly will, if that is your wish."

Both men whirled and saw a monster in the hall behind them, so big, it was unable to stand at its full height, if stand was right the word.

"What…the…fuck?" gasped the leader.

"I am glad you told me where they were," it said, flexing taloned fingers. "Following their scent was tiring. Now I can _kill_ them. But first…"

Its lips peeled back and its mouth opened wide, two huge venom-tipped fangs sliding down from the roof of its mouth.

"I hunger!" it roared and lunged forward.

The men screamed and brought up their guns.

Everyone snapped awake as they heard gunshots and screams.

"What the fuck?" cried Naomi.

There was a bang as Billy hit his head again.

The Yautja leaped to their feet, instantly alert. Mercarian uncurled form around Hope, who sat bolt upright.

"**_Kate! And the human female_**," said Kradak.

"What about them?" asked Hope, looking at him.

"Uh, they're not here," said Billy.

"WHAT?!" shouted Hope.

"**_They left_**," said Kradak. "**_They went to the…bathroom_**." He struggled with the word he had no translation for.

"Oh for the love of God," groaned Naomi. "That girl has no bladder control."

"We have to save them!" shouted Hope.

"No!" snapped Shane. "I'm sorry to say, but its better if they die and not all of us."

"Listen here you-" snarled Hope.

"Hope!" said Naomi, jumping up.

Mercarian hissed.

Guns cocked and the Yautja activated the laser sights on their masks.

"Hey!" shouted David. "Stop it! Shut up and listen!"

Everyone obediently fell silent.

"I don't hear anything," said Naomi, and then blinked.

"Is that good or bad?" asked Hope.

"I'm betting on bad," said Billy.

Suddenly there were two feminine screams and a roar that could come form no human throat.

Audrey and Kate were two corridors away from the lavatory when they heard the screams and gunshots.

Only for then, it was around the corner.

It was men, too terrified to be bothered with any for of masculinity. They were screaming in sheer terror.

They froze on the spot, listening to the sound of gunfire and screams. Kate began to back away.

Andrea grabbed her and jerked her head forward, scowling. Kate shook her head so furiously she was afraid it'd go flying.

Suddenly what sounded like two guns became one, and one scream became a death-gurgle. The second gun stopped, but the screaming continued.

Then it was cut short.

Then the wet, sickening sounds of rending flesh and splattering blood was heard and Kate when white, then a little green. She started to back away again.

Audrey rounded on her and she jumped.

A few seconds later, they approached the corner of the hall, Kate mentally going over each and every prayer, promise and desperate plea she could come up with to any god listening about three times.

They lifted their guns and turned the corner.

A great hulking creature sat in the middle of the hall, holding a body in two hands as it worried it like a dog. A pile of unrecognizable flesh lay on the ground before it.

"Ohmigod!" squeaked Kate before she could help herself.

The beast looked up from the corpse, blood dripping from its maw, pooling in the pile of gore and entrails on the floor.

Soon the body joined the pile.

It was about ten feet high, and its body snake-like body was longer than five meters. It had a bulbous head with barbs and spikes on it, a humanoid torso and two huge taloned arms. It had a second pair of arms that ended in two huge blades. Its body coiled and they saw spines along its dark green length. Its body tapered into a thin tail tipped with a large blade and spines. From its back emerged four long spindly appendages tipped with three razor-sharp talons.

Its lips peeled back and its mouth opened, revealing bloody fangs.

"Now what, genius," snarled Kate at Andrea out of the corner of her mouth.

The creature coiled its body.

"Run?" suggested Andrea, the gun held limply in her hands.

The spindly appendages widened.

"Running's good," squeaked Kate.

"On the count of three," said Andrea. "One-"

"THREE!" screamed Kate, grabbing the other woman and running.

"AHHHHH!" screamed Kate and Andrea as they ran.

The creature lunged after them with a roar. It proceeded to follow them hissing and screeching slithering down the corridor, banging against the walls in its haste, making everything rattle and boom.

"AHHHHH!" screamed Kate and Andrea, exploding into the mess hall.

Everyone stared at them in stupefaction.

"AHHH!" they screamed, slamming the door shut, locking it and proceeded to pile things in front of it.

"What's going on?" asked Hope.

Mercarian hissed and tensed and the Yautja leaped to their feet, ready for action.

The women backed away, gasping and trembling.

"M-m-m-mo-mo-m-mon-m-monst-mon," stammered Kate.

"I think we have a problem," said Andrea.

"Let's just say, I don't need to go to the toilet anymore," whimpered Kate.

Something slammed against the door, rattling the tables and chairs.

"AH!" screamed all the humans.

"Do you know what it is?" whispered Hope.

"Uh huh," said Kate. "It was big and scary and I think it's safe to say it's _not_ a vegetarian."

Then it slammed against the door again. A talon-tipped spindly leg punched through the door repeatedly and then four talons tore long vertical slits on the metal portal.

Everyone stared for about ten seconds.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

Kate ducked behind Kradak, "I don't want to be worm food!"

"Worm food?" gasped Hope.

"GENESIS ZERO!" roared the beast from behind the door. "I SMELL YOU! I HUNGER FOR YOUR FLESH!"

"Charming," muttered Naomi.

Hope shudder suddenly, feeling something _moving_ under her skin, at the back of her mind.

Hope? asked Mercarian. Are you well?

"I don't know," said Hope.

Suddenly a fist punched through the door like it was tinfoil.

"AHH!"

Kradak retaliated by firing his plasma gun. It punched through the door and the beast roared.

"WHO _DARES_ HARM ME?"

A charred hand ripped the metal like paper and a hideous head pushed through.

"**I_ harmed you_**," snarled Kradak. "**_And your skull shall adorn my trophy room_**!"

"You are bold, little hunter," hissed the beast as it slid through the hole it had made, its body pooling on the ground. "Love as I would to kill you, I have not the time. My quarrel is with the humans and the Genesis Zero. Leave us, and leave alive, otherwise you'll all die."

No one moved, though Notak and Tisarek my have stayed for the thrill of the hunt.

"Uh, excuse me," said Hope and the beast turned to her. "Pardon my French, but what the _fuck_ are you?"

The beast chuckled and splayed a clawed hand on its chest, "I am Sobek, the youngest of the five Genesis One."

"Genesis One?" asked Hope.

"But enough idle talk," spat Sobek. "Time to die."

His tail snapped out and Hope threw herself to the side, the bladed tail tearing up the metal floor.

"HOPE!" screamed Kate, but Sobek twisted his body and struck out at Kate, knocking her into a wall with one powerful blow of his arm.

Kradak, Billy, David and Naomi screamed her name as she hit the floor hard.

The humans opened fire on Sobek, but the bullets barely penetrated his thick hide.

"Insignificant insects!" he shouted and lunged at the humans, grabbing one man and sinking his fangs into him. He bit down hard, worrying the ma like a dog with a bone, pivoting on his snake-like trunk to face the rest of them. The man screamed a flailed, blood pouring form his mouth and wounds.

"Help me!" he screamed. "Help! HELP ME PLEASE!"

"Oh my god!" whimpered Naomi.

Sobek reached up, grabbing the man's upper torso in one hand and his legs in the other, and tore him in half.

"OH MY GOD!" screamed Naomi.

Sobek roared and tossed the pieces aside, blood glistening on his body. As he leered at the rest of them.

Mercarian was already in motion, leaping on Sobek's back, tearing with claws and wrapping his tail around him for a better grip.

Everyone attacked with fury, but the Genesis Zero had no weapons. Noami tried to lunge for the dead man's weapon, but Sobek lifted the free end of his tail and brought it daown hard upon the gun, smashing it, then twisting his tail to know Naomi away.

Kradak leaped into the fray and stabbed his spear though Sobek's lower body, pinning his snake-like trunk to the ground. Sobek screeched and thrashed, throwing Mercarian off and making Kradak leap back.

Tisarek fired his plasma gun and burnt Sobek's shoulder, but the full force of the plasma gun did little to him.

While those that were able kept him busy, David and Billy ran to Kate and Naomi ran to Hope.

"We're so helpless, Hope!" she sobbed, helping her frend to her knees. "They're supposed to have made us freaking super warriors and when some monster comes along all we can do is stand aside and warm the bench!"

Hope shook her head, feeling something deep within her, some beast clawing to be free. Voices whirled in her head.

"_Evolution…combined DNA…super warriors…predators…evoloution…_" she shook her head again. '_If he's Genesis One, he must be the genesis after us. But why does he look so different?_' she glanced at her very human hands. '_Why do I lok so human if we have so little human DNA compared to the rest_?' she watched her nails lengthen into black talons. '_If I can change my nails…and change my eyes…why can't I change the rest of myself_?'

"Hope?" breathed Naomi. "Hope? Hey! Say something!"

A low growl erupted from deep in Hope's chest.

"What the…?" breathed David as he, Billy and Kate approached.

'_Sobek was just like those men_," though Hope. '_Those men from the restaurant. Those men that took lives just because they could. Wel…I couldn't stop them, but I can stop Sobek! I won't stand by and let him do this I won't, I _won't_ I _**WON'T**_!_'

The beast within Hope reared its head and roared for blood, clawing to be free……..and Hope let it go.

The other four cried out and fell back as Hope threw back her head and half screamed, half roared and everyone whirled to stare at her.

Bones snapped and cracked and her back arched violently. Something moved under her skin as her skin turned darker, shiny. A tail burst form the base of her spine, tipped with a blade. Talons grew from her fingers and her ears grew pointed and tall. Her face stretched out into a muzzle and she surged to her feet. Two leathery wings burst form her back.

"Hope," breathed Naomi.

"Whoa," breathed Kate. "Way cool!"

"NO!" shouted Sobek. "This…this cannot be!"

Hope stood slowly, her breath heaving. She now stood over eight feet tall, on legs with two knees, one facing forward, one reversed. She was dark-skinned, but not like Mercarian, and her skin had a bluish tinge, her clothes shredded to form a rough loincloth and breast band. She shook her head, covered in a mane of snow-white hair. Her face was wolfish and her eyes were slitted and red. She flexed her arms and two blades of bone slid from the sides of her forearms. Smaller spine-like blades emerged from her back, down her spine and two horns curved back from her head

Hope opened her mouth a roared in challenge, and she and Sobek circled each other.

"What the hell?" gasped Andrea.

"Woo hoo!" shouted Kate. "Kick his ass Hope!"

"Of course," said James suddenly.

"What?" said Naomi.

"Yautja and Xenomorph do not look much like humans, and we combined your DNA with human DNA, so why do you look so human? That answer is so simple! Because it's one of you _forms_!"

Sobek tore himself free of Kradak's spear and sprung at Hope, who caught him and slammed him into the wall, tearing at him with her talons. He screeched and swung his tail around to bring his tail blade to bear, but she brought up her town tail and sliced off the bladed, spiked end.

Sobek drew back his fist and punched Hope, sending her stumbling back. He wasted no time and lunged after her, wrapping his snake-like body around her, crushing her.

She grunted and struggled, and Sobek laughed.

"See you're leader," he spat. "See her as I crush the life from her. See-AAARGH!"

Blood spurted from Sobek's coils and he slithered away from Hope, who was slicking at him with her wrist blades.

She shook herself and snapped at him.

"You're a son of a bitch," she spat in a warped voice. "I'm gonna kill you, and I'm gonna enjoy every bloody minute."

She stepped forward and Sobek hissed and reared up, opening his mouth to reveal his fangs.

_BLAM_!

Sobek's head jerked up as the bullet crashed into his jaw. Kate fired again, _BLAM_, and the second bullet found its mark, spurting blood as it hit the jaw.

"Die you motherfucker!" screamed Kate.

_BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM_!

Sobek wailed as his jaw hung from a scrap of flesh.

"Time to finished this," snarled Hope, lunging forward and slamming Sobek against the wall. The ensuing struggle was impossible to follow, full of flying blood, claws, hisses, screeches and roars.

Everyone stared.

Suddenly Sobek's mangled body was cast to the floor and Hope leaped atop him, sinking her long fangs into his throat and tearing it out.

"Ewww," squealed Kate.

Hope staggered back and fell to her knees.

"I'm a freak," she breathed.

"No way!" said Kate, lunging at her and wrapping her arms around her neck. "This is so totally cool! I want a super cool other form as well!"

Naomi stepped forward slowly, "Hope? Its still you right?"

Hope looked at her and nodded as Kate jumped off her.

Mercarian raised himself and sniffed her face and she closed her eyes and let him.

You smell like Hope.

Thanks…….I think.

Mercarian gave his grin, You look better this way.

Hope took a swipe at him, Shaddup.

"Can you change back?" said Billy. "Because if you can't, that's not good. Good luck trying to explain _that_ one."

Hope blinked and closed her eyes. She located the beast within her, sated and lazy after a kill, and drew it slowly back deep inside of her. She heard snapping bones and shifting muscle, flesh and organs and, when she opened her eyes again, she stood on her tattered clothing. Instantly she dropped to the ground and tried to cover herself, growing bright red.

A large leather black wing wrapped around her and shielded her from view as Kate ran to get a blanket.

You humans and your modesty, said Mercarian as he shook his head.

Kate draped the blanket around her friend and Hope nodded her thanks.

"We need to find some clothes," said Naomi.

Everyone got ready to move, Kradak retrieving his spear. Hope could barely walk, so Mercarian hoisted her onto his back. The soldiers unlocked the other door and surveyed the shadows.

"Hang on," Hope said.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"James," she said and turned to him. "You know something about this thing. You know, don't fucking lie. I've fucking had it. Tell us everything you know about Genesis One. Tell us NOW!"

James gulped, "I….I don't know anything. Honestly Hope."

"Don't lie to me, human," spat Hope.

"He's not lying," said a voice.

Everyone whirled to stare at the shadows of the open doorway to see a man standing there, his face obscured by shadows.

"Whoa," he said, holding up his hands. "Kill me, and you never find out exactly what you are."

"Who the fuck are you?" shouted Shane.

"I am the only man on this ship, maybe the only man at all, who can tell you exactly what Genesis Zero…..and Genesis One are."

"Lawson," spat Hope.

"Indeed," smirked Lawson as he emerged from the shadows. "The one and only."

**Duh duh duh! Ohh evil cliffhanger! Finally another chapter. I have all these other story ideas whirling in my head. If you wanna hear the summary to some of them, review and leave your email and I'll send them to you. And if you steal them I'll set Hope on you!Mwahahahah!**

**As always, suggestions welcome! I'm kinda stuck now.**

**Anyways, review review review! I need the encouragement!**

**Love you all!**

**XXXXX**

**The _CrimsonMistress_!**


	6. Chapter V

**Disclaimer: Oh come on! How many times do I have to say it?!**

**A/N.**

**I am soooooooo sorry it's taken me so long to do this chapter! I am ashamed! I'm soo sorry! I just have all these ideas whirling around in my head and school work and shit. Anyways, it's here! Be happy everyone! I'm already working on chapter 6 ok? I'll get it up asap. Don't forget to check out my fic with Mac- CQB ok? Salvation, rated R for swearing so far…sorry, my bad.**

**P.S for all of you out there who aren't afraid to show their feelings…..grab a Kleenex!**

There was a long pause.

"I say kill him," snarled Naomi.

"Now, now," said Lawson, smiling and stepping into the room, only to freeze when everyone tensed and half a dozen weapons were cocked or turned on and aimed at him.

"I wouldn't kill me," he said, his self-assured smile fading only slightly. "I am very important to you."

"Oh yeah?" said Shane. "How?"

"As I said, I can tell you what they are," he pointed at Naomi, David and Billy, who stood together. Kate stood beside Kradak and Hope was on Mercarian's back.

"That's not a reason," snarled David. "The main computer will know."

Lawson's smile faltered again, "You won't be able to get into the databases without me."

"We have James," said Andrea.

"He doesn't have the passcode."

"He's right," said James reluctantly.

"I'll hack into it," said the soldier Spencer.

"You pathetic grunt," said Lawson. "It's a high-security computer, what makes you think you can 'hack' it."

"Spence is one of the best," said Shane. "He'll do it."

"Got any more reasons?" said Kate, scowling.

Lawson faltered and Mercarian grinned, peeling back his lips and licking his teeth, Allow me to eat him, then. 

"No," said Hope suddenly. "We _can_ use him."

Everyone protested and Lawson grinned again.

Hope shook her head, "Don't give me that grin, Lawson, you're insurance, that's it. If they don't do what we like, you die, simple as that, but if you're as an important scientist as you say, we should have no problems…right?"

Lawson lost his grin completely.

The sound of ripping material greeted their ears and everyone turned to see Andrea ripping a blanket into strips. She walked over to Lawson, turned him around and slammed him face-first into the wall.

"Hands behind your back, asshole."

As she tied him up, Shane took off his vest and his shirt, offering the latter to Hope, "Until we find some more clothes."

She smiled her thanks and hurriedly put it on over her rags.

"Let's move it," she said. "I want to get to the main computer and the ship before we encounter any other soldiers or this…….Genesis One."

Kradak went first, poking his head out the doorway and scanning for movement and heat signatures. When all was clear, the group of twenty two (I think that's right counts her fingers Ah! I don't have enough fingers counts her toes Not enough of them either! runs to look for her sister's fingers) headed out to the doorway. Kate, holding her earlier confiscated weapon, Shane, Notak and Inaria behind Kradak, who lead the party, Andrea behind Lawson, who came next, then was Mercarian bearing Hope, holding one of her two guns, with David, James and Billy with Hope's other gun, on either side, then Tisarek, Naomi and the other five soldiers bringing up the rear. (Any of you who did not get how they got those weapons obviously hasn't read chapter two right!!!)

Lawson was shouting protests at his treatment and Hope was contemplating shooting him in the back to shut him up.

"Hey!" snarled Naomi. "You're ability to walk and talk is a privilege, asshole! Shut you're trap or I'll shut it for you!"

"This treatment is inhuman and unjust and I _demand_ you release me and give me a weapon for my own defense!"

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"I am an intellectual being and a graduate from Smithmore University of Science and I _demand_ you release me _this instant_!"

"You know, yelling and spitting's not gonna make us wanna let you loose any sooner," said Billy.

"How dare you! I will not tolerate this insubordination! You pathetic creatures let me go! I am superior to all of you!"

"Yeah, _right_," snarled Andrea, who shoved him from behind. "Keep walking asshole."

"Get you're hands off me, you bitch! How dare you treat me like this! I am you're superior! And you! I am you _creator_ you should be _grateful_ to me! If it weren't for me, you'd still be dead! I deserve your respect! I deserve you're _reverence_! You, Geneseis Zero, should _worship me as a GOD_!"

"_Hey_!"

Kate whirled and jammed the barrel of her gun under his chin, halting everyone's progress.

"Shut the _fuck_ up you dumb ass, self assured, egotistical, pussy-faced, pansy-assed, cock sucking, ass licking, motherfucking, dickless, son of a bitch or I'm gonna smack you so hard in the mouth, you'll have to stick you're toothbrush up your tight ass to clean your teeth!"

They started out again, but no sooner had they taken nine steps when Lawson muttered darkly, "Stupid foul-mouthed harlot. I wonder if you got you're manners from you're wore of a mother, that would also explain why that barbaric creature seems to like you so mu-"

He never go to finished his sentence, for at that second, Kate had whirled with a furious scream and slammed the butt of her gun into his face, knocking him to the floor, where he lay motionless.

Everyone crowded around.

"Wow."

"Is he dead?"

"Oh, please, let that be so."

"No, he's just unconscious."

"Oh crap."

"She knocked him out cold!"

"Way to go Kate!"

Kate stood silently, her hand covering her mouth, eyes wide with amazement. Kradak chuckled and clapped her on the shoulder, nodding, "**_Well, you received your wish_**."

"What? Oh yeah!" Kate smiled.

Even Notak nodded in respect to her and Inaira cuckled.

Suddenly Naomi chuckled and stepped out of a storage room, holding a roll of duct tape in one hand, and pulling a long strip, grinning evilly. (Okay, it's waaaaaaaaay in the future, but you gotta know, duct tape is a good emergency thing! And it's my story! I am the author! I am GOD! MWAHAHAHAH…ha…ha….ahem, never mind)

Shane stared as Naomi stepped back from her masterpiece, grinning down at Lawson.

"You little devil you," said Hope, punching her lightly in the arm.

"Devil? Moi?" said Nomi, looking shocked. "What about you? With the shape changing and the ripping out of throats?"

"Yeah!" said Kate, jumping on Hope's back, nearly toppling her over. "That was sooooo cool!"

"Yeah? You don't think it was weird?"

"Dude," said Kate. "We hang with Billy. Nothing is weird to us anymore."

"Hey!" said Billy.

"It's true man," said David, punching him lightly. "You are the epiphany of weird."

Billy punched him back, "Watch it David."

David hit him, a little harder, "You watch it."

Punch. "No, you watch it!"

Whack. "You watch it!"

Hope, Kate and Naomie groaned as the two boys fel to the ground, wrestling.

"**_We do not have time for unblooded foolery_**," snapped Kradak, watching them. "**_We must move on_**."

"Ah let em have their fun," said Kate, watching them. "They'll get over it in a sec."

Hope was scowled and Kate nudged her, "Seriously, Hope. It's all cool. I rely hope I have one….except maybe a red color, black is really unflattering on me…."

Hope laughed.

Lawson regained consciousness as his head hit the first step. He attempted to protest, but found several layer of duct tape over his mouth. He also discovered that he was hog-tied securely and was currently being dragged behind Mercarian, a length of shredded blanket tied loosely about the Xenomorph King's tail.

"Hey, hey, hey, sleeping…I hesitate at the word beauty," said Naomi, wrinkling her nose, "Because, you know, beauty is one thing, among many, you are _not_."

She walked behind the dragging Lawson and everyone immediately knew he was once again awake.

"Mmmph phhnuh uhhh nnnnddd!" grunted Lawson.

(Well, he said a bit more, but that was un-writable.)

"Hmm," said Hope over her shoulder, buttoning the shirt of her new clothing as she walked beside Mercarian, now fully clothed again. "What did he say?"

"Don't know, don't care," spat Kate.

"You see, that's the thing with girls," said Billy to Mercarian. "With a guy, or at least, human ones, if they have a disagreement, they can go outside, have a punch up, then come back in the best of friends. _Girls_ on the other hand, if you piss off a girl, let's just say you have an enemy for life."

"And they're crafty little things, too," added David, checking over his pulse rifle. "If they aren't able to get you physically….they'll get you in other ways."

Kate grinned suddenly for no reason and both boys shuddered.

The corpse of Sobek still lay in the mess hall, as they had left it, silent, dead. (As a doorknob! How is that possible, considering a doorknob was never actually alive or ever capable of life, so is not able to 'die' so how can an inanimate object be dead? –Someone fwaps CM on the back of the head- OW! Ok! Shutting up.)

But suddenly a shadow fell on him and a pincer-framed mouth leaned down to nidge him gently, as if encouraging him to rise. A long thin but muscular leg appeared, tipped with three claws, two to the front and one at the back, all digging into the metal of the deck like it was butter. The beast hissed softly and opened a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth and inhaled deeply.

It moaned mournfully, and then it lifted its head and screeched.

Shane grabbed Naomi's elbow suddenly, "I need to tell you something."

She turned and looked at him, "What is it?"

"Not here," he glanced around, "Somewhere private…..later."

"Ok…"

Then everyone froze and looked around when a roar echoed around, resounding through the corridors.

A sound of pain, rage and grief, a sound of promised vengeance.

"What the hell was that?" said another soldier, Hawkins.

"I'm betting on 'not good'," said Billy.

Then the were a multitude of crashes and clamoring behind them and they all whirled and stared behind them.

"Sounds like a not-so-happy family reunion," said Hope slowly.

Realization dawned on everyone.

"Okay, time to run!" said Kate, turning to bolt.

Kradak grabbed her and held her still, "**_We will stand and fight_**."

"Great!" said Kate. "Tell me how it goes!"

Kradak refused to relinquish his grip on her.

Mercarian hissed, Let it come, I hunger. 

Kate whimpered, "Am I the only one who thinks we should run?"

"Running's good," said Billy.

Suddenly Lawson chuckled form under his gag and everyone looked at him as Mercarian pulled his tail from the lead.

Naomi reached down and yanked off his gag and he grinned at them, "You can't run from it. It will find you. They are even greater than you, freaks. Genesis One are the perfect warriors, perfection, a blend of DNA from all species, harnessing their abilities. We knew you were failures from the start, so we began them."

James eyes widened, "No one knew about this, no one at all! I would have heard something!"

"Of course you stupid idiot!" shouted Lawson. "You're such a fool! We would never leak something like this to nerds like you!"

"So that's what was on those forbidden Decks

"They can't be so good if they eat your crew," snarled Kate.

"Yeah," said Andrea, "We saw them eating two humans, and they ate Tim."

Lawson growled, "They do not matter, they are mere grunts, replaceable."

"Like us?!" snarled David, striding forward and hauling Lawson up by his collar. "Like we were replaceable? Well guess what, you asshole, we killed one of your little creations, and we'll kill the rest if they come for us!"

"They will!" spat Lawson. "They will come for you! All of them! Sobek was the _youngest_, weakest of them…the others are stronger, faster, smarter….bigger…."

"Maybe they'll be appeased with a sacrifice!" snarled Naomi, glaring at Lawson.

Suddenly the roar sounded again, this time much closer.

"It's coming," breathed Hope.

"How do you know?" asked Shane.

"I can hear it….I can smell it, I can feel it's evil."

"Evil?"

I cannot hear anything….nor smell, said Mercarian.

"It's coming," said Hope. "I can feel him, behind my eyes…he found Sobek's body."

Kate tilted her head to one side, "I can't hear….wait…." Her eyes widened and she staggered back. "He's coming fast!"

Naomi tightened her grip on her weapon, "Straight in front of us!"

"Spencer!" shouted Shane. "Motion detector!"

"There's something coming towards us, alright! And it's a big-assed mother!" He looked up, but I don't understand it! The corridor's so long! We should be able to see him!"

The screech sounded again, this time accompanied by scratching claws and rumbling metal that slowly got louder.

"Man he is _pissed_!" shouted Spencer.

Suddenly the sound stopped and all went silent.

"Kradak?" said Kate.

"**_I see no other heat signatures_**," said the Prince, looking around, and then he glanced down and touched his wrist computer and looked around again. "**_There is nothing_**."

"It's like it vanished," breathed Andrea.

Hope shook her head and handed her weapon to James, who took it slowly, "It can see us."

She shed her clothing and placed it into a pack that Naomi had picked up, and then closed her eyes.

The transformation began, this time not a violent or painful as the last one. Soon she stood tall again, her head reaching as high as the ceiling of the hall.

Her tail lashed and she lifted her head, roaring a challenge. Mercarian echoed it.

I can smell it, purred her voice in their minds. It is till there. 

Suddenly they heard a scraping from the roof behind them and everyone whirled, tensing muscles and fingers around their weapons.

Then the ceiling tore open behind them and two long, many-jointed legs tipped with claws wrapped around a soldier and dragged him, kicking and screaming, into the ceiling, where, soon after, blood dripped down in waves…along with his head and various internal organs, and the screaming turned to a death-gurgle and then to hungry wet crunches.

Kate screamed.

The soldiers yelled various war-cries and fired round after round into the ceiling, raking it up and down with bullets.

"Stop!" shouted Shane. "CEASE FIRE!"

Everyone stopped nearly at once and waited with baited breath.

Jegoret clicked softly, and Kradak echoed him, and the whirring sound of moving plasma casters and heavy breathing were the only sound heard.

"I think-" began Billy.

With a roar, the floor exploded and two legs shot out, spearing another soldier and tossing him away like unwanted baggage.

It lunged with a roar, but Hope's tail lashed out and knocked it back, stunning it momentarily.

They got a good look at it. It was supported on eight huge legs that bent at the first joint, as if unable to sustain its saucer-like body. Two arms curled back into the join where the legs met the body, the fingers nothing but long blades. A large flat head split nearly in half, two pincer spreading wide as it hissed and scrambled back to its taloned feet.

"Fuck!" shouted David as the soldiers raised their weapons and fired.

Strange eyelids slid over its eyes and the bullets ricocheted off its hard carapace does as much harm as mosquitoes on a car. (Except they splatter everywhere…..hey hey hey! Joke! What does through a grasshopper's mind as it hits a car windscreen at 100 km per hour? Its legs! Ha ha ha! Get it….goes through it's mind….its head…it's legs do! Ha ha…oh never mind)

"You killed my brother!" it screeched in a high- pitched voice. "You have shed his blood with your barbaric weapons and dishonorable attacks! Soon, you're blood shall flow with his, my claws shall rend your flesh and you're spirits shall go to the next life!"

What is it with these guys and speeches? snarled Hope, as she and Mercarian lunged forward, talking the creature to the ground.

"**_It is too cramped for them to fight_**!" shouted Inaria. "**_Come behind us! Allow us to defeat this beast_**!"

They didn't exactly have a choice on moving or not, for a second later, both Xenomorph and hybrid were flung away from him hard, flying over the rest of them who ducked frantically.

Both crashed in a heap in the hall, moaning and picking themselves up slowly.

"**_The shell conceals the heat signatures_**!" shouted Tisarek.

"**_Then change your fucking vision_**!" screamed Inaria, leaping forward, her spear extended.

"Go Ari…" chuckled Naomi.

This confounded passage is too small for us, snarled Mercarian. It is too small to fight against this creature. 

"Three is an elevator shaft for transportation vehicles! But the cables that hold it up are getting replaced…I don't know…"

"It'll do!" shouted David. "Move!"

Everyone turned and ran, Hope physically picking up Tisarek and Notak as they refused to move and fleeing down the corridor.

The beast screeched and scuttled after them, its arms extending to their full length, slashing at their heels.

Lawson lay, ignored, and shifted his body over to the broken metal of the floor and began to saw through his bonds.

They exploded onto the platform, Hope dropping Tisarek and Notak out of the way, streaking ahead to leap at the opposite wall, brace herself, and lunge back, sailing over the others and knocking the beast back.

A large scaffold stood on one side of the wide platform, lines of cables looping on the ground, along with blowtorches, cutting-blades and other boxes and tools.

"I am Reeshan!" it screeched. "I will avenge my brother!"

I am Hope! she snarled back. I killed your brother! 

Reeshan roared and struck out, slashing Hope' shoulder open with his bladed hand. Mercarian swung his tail and struck Reeshan, knocking him back, then hurried over to Hope.

Perhaps not the best thing to have told him, he drawled.

The six Yautja were engage in a desperate fight with the creature, their weapons having little effect on its tough hide.

Naomi felt helpless, on her knees, staring at Hope, Mercarian and the Yautja fight. She felt movement under her skin, a creature crying to be let out.

Notak pulled a disc from his belt and activated it with a whining hum, and hurled it at Reeshan, but it ricocheted off his carapace and imbedded into the wall at the opposite end.

Reeshan knocked everyone away and screeched wildly, pummeling anyone who came closer. He spotted Naomi, kneeling and alone, and adavcned on her, hissing and clicking his bladed hands.

Hope lifted her head and turned to stare at Noami, who Reeshan was slowly backing into a corner.

Let it go, Naomi, said Hope's voice in her mind, unusually calm for someone who had just leaped onto the back of a giant crab-slash- razorblade. It wants to be free, let it. It is a part of you now. 

Nomi shudder and dropped on all fours, moaning softly.

"Back off!" shouted David. "Naomi's doing that thing!"

"That thing?" shouted Kate, backed against the wall. "Nice. Real nice!"

"You try thinking under pressure!" shouted David.

"Ok, I will!"

Then Naomi's head snapped up, fangs growing from her mouth and her back arching as scales ripped through her skin, a light blue color slashed with white. A tail shot from her spine, tipped in a hard bone spear. The spear snapped over her shoulder, even before Naomi was fully changed, and sliced through the thigh exoskeleton on Reeshan's body, spreading thick blue-green blood everywhere.

Naomi stood as tall as Hope, but as Hope was bent forward slightly, Naomi stood tall and straight, muscles rippling under her scaled skin, large fins running down her back in three rows and three huge spike pointing forwards over her head. She had two blades on each wrist and on her ankles, and her feet were like huge t-rex feet, with a knee high, and the ankle stretching back over the ball of her foot.

Reeshan hissed and recoiled, lashing out with one taloned fist, but Naomi brought her own taloned hand up, caught his wrist and sent her other fist smashing into his face.

Naomi will not be able to hold her form for very long if she keeps this up, said Hope, shuddering as she changed back. "I am drained now…"

You fucking asshole! roared Naomi. I'm gonna kick…your….ASS! Naomi picked Reeshan up and threw him into the wall.

Reeshan twisted his body and caught himself with his legs, but one of this bladed hands sliced through a rather important wire…

The platform lurched and tipped slightly, sending everyone stumbling, and a few to their knees. Reeshan hissed and turned his head, slicing another cable. The platform tipped again, further, and Andrea, James and another soldier went tumbling towards Reeshan.

Mercarian spread his wings to their full length and leaped into the air, flying down, reaching out to snatch Andrea and James, just as Reeshan tore into the third soldier. The Xeno King banked sharply, twisting his body to sink his hind claws into a wall and leaping straight up, landing at the opposite end of the platform.

Reeshan slashed yet another cable, causing the platform to tip more, and a loop of white tumbled down into the darkness below.

"The scaffold!" shouted Shane. "Get to the scaffold! We can hang onto that!"

"It's a maintenance rig! It's secured to the wall!" agreed James.

Everyone began a frantic climb/crawl up towards the scaffold, and Reeshan screeched, realizing his prey was escaping him, and slashed yet another wire.

Andrea screamed as she slipped yet again. But Mercarian grabbed her arm and hauled her onto his back as the Xeno King climbed slowly. Genesis Zero had elongated their fingernails into talons, sinking them easily into the metal of the platform and beside them were the Yautja. Mercarian carried Shane, James, Spencer, Andrea and the only other soldier left.

Reeshan hissed and scuttled up the platform after them, but Naomi, even as she changed back, drew back one fist and punched him full in the face.

Then she slipped.

Inaria threw out an arm and caught her, grunting with the effort.

"Inaria!" shouted Naomi, shocked.

"**_That's what friends are for_**!" replied the Yautja female.

Naomi grinned and began the long climb again.

Kradak reached the scaffold first, pulling everyone up onto it as they came, hesitating slightly when it came to Mercarian, but helped him nonetheless.

"Door!" shouted David and he, Billy, Shane, Spencer and the other marine ran to it.

"It's jammed!" said Shane.

James ran to the console, "It's a lock-down code! Lawson!"

Our heroes (and villains-in-disguise -glares at Tisarek and Notak-) glanced at each other in a moment of realization.

"We left him behind," said Naomi softly.

"Wow, he moves fast," noted Kate.

"Son of a _bitch_!" screamed Hope, slamming her hand into the wall.

"You are MINE!" roared Reeshan.

Billy glanced at everyone as they prepared to face him down again, and then heard the shrieking of metal and the scaffold lurched violently.

"Shit!" screamed James. "The scaffold's attached to the platform! It's got to be the only thing holding it up!"

Billy glanced over and saw Notak's disc embedded in the wall and tugged it free, climbing down below the scaffolding.

Mercarian lashed out at Reeshan, knocking him down again, the Genesis One only catching himself by a talon-tip at the edge of the platform.

He pulled himself up, just as the platform lurched again, and looked up, hissing in amazement.

"NOOO!"

Hope snapped her head down and saw Billy shearing through each of the scaffolding's connections to the platform.

Reeshan threw himself up the platform, scrabbling to reach Billy before it was too late.

"Billy! What the fuck are you doing?!" screamed Hope.

Billy sheared through the last connection. But a cable seemed to lash out and got caught in the scaffold at the last second, bringing the platform's deadly drop to a sudden stop.

Billy was jarred from his position and slid down the cable, landing on some jammed boxes hard.

"BILLY!" shouted Hope. "Look out! He's coming!"

Billy looked deep into Hope's eyes, and they both knew….they all did, that Billy would never make it back to the scaffold in time.

Billy glanced up at his friends, tears streaming down his face. Reeshan reached for him, snarling and hissing.

"Billy," breathed Hope. "Don't even think about it."

"Good bye," he whispered, and even through Reeshan's hissing, and the shriek and groan of rending metal, they heard his heart-rending words.

"NO!" screamed Hope. "Billy! Don't be a hero! BILLY!"

Billy used the disk to shear through the last cable.

As if in slow motion, the weeping Billy Hendricks and the howling Reeshan fell from sight, into the black abyss.

"NOOOOO!" screamed Hope. "NO! NO _NOO_! BILLY! BILLY _NOOOOO_!"

Hope lunged forward and peered into the shadows of the shaft, tears streaming down her face.

The platform fell swiftly, into darkness, and moments later, a resounding crash echoed up to them.

"Oh my god," breathed Naomi. "He can't be….Billy."

"No….NO….NOOOOO!" howled Hope, the bestial roar of her alternate form echoing her heat-wrenching cry.

Kate looked like she was having a fit, her legs scrabbling at the floor, clutching Kradak, screaming, who was trying vainly to comfort her. David slid down the wall, stunned. Naomi slammed her fist over and over into the wall, screaming, tears streaming down her face.

Shane stopped her and cradled her bruised hand close to his chest as she sobbed. Andrea sobbed into Jegoret's chest. James had his head bowed and his own shoulders were heaving. Inaria tugged Naomi gently away from the wall and the hybrid sobbed into the Yautja's chest.

Hope was screaming Billy's name, and was scrambling for a ladder when Shane strode forward and picked her up and slammed her against the wall, "He's GONE Hope! Gone! He's not coming back! We have got to keep moving!"

"But….but…" Hope hiccupped and sniffed, turning her head to look back down the shaft.

"No, Hope," said Shane. "He's not coming back this time…."

Hope's face crumpled and she collapsed into Shane's arms, sobbing. Kate rocked back and forth, keening softly, her eyes blank.

Mercarian moaned softly, mournfully, and touched Hope's shoulder. She turned to him and buried her face in his shoulder, and wrapped his arms around her, using his wings to shield her.

"Hope, Kate's hyperventilating," called James shakily.

Hope turned her head to see Kate's shuddering form, her head between her knees, James and David speaking softly to her, Kradak hovering worriedly behind them.

Hope slid to her knees beside her petite friend and Kate latched on like a barnacle.

"We…were…sup…posed…to… be …o-okay…" she gasped, "We….were…sup-posed…to be….ha-happy…"  
Hope hugged her tight, "He's still with us babe….in our hearts."

"N-not…fa-fair…."

"I know it's not fair," sobbed Hope. "But we still have each other."

Naomi crawled into the little huddle and the three girls were a sobbing mass of grief.

Kradak stared at them, rubbing his chest. He did not understand, when a clanmate fell in battle, especially to continue the lives of the rest of the clan, it was an honorable death, a great and worthy death that any warrior would want for themselves, and no one would grieve…

But watching the three girls, and even David who looked like his soul had been sucked from his body….Kradak did not understand their reactions….nor did he understand the sharp ache in his chest.

Tisarek hissed angrily, "**_We must continue. We have no time for this_**."

Hope looked at him and said nothing.

"**_Perhaps…we should rest a moment_**," suggested Inaria. "**_Recuperate form the fight, and allow them time to….recover, however slightly_**."

"**_A good idea, Inaria_**," said Kradak, then glanced at the humans who looked perplexed, only then realized that the hybrids had been translating everything the Yautja said up until now….and now they didn't seem likely to say many things coherent.

Inaria has suggested that we rest, said Mercarian in the human's minds, causing them to jump. Is there some place… 

Suddenly the floor beneath them groaned and everyone looked around.

"Oh shit….." breathed James.

The scaffold gave way in a screaming of metal and swung down sharply, everyone grabbing onto something. The scaffold punched through part of the wall on the level below. Everyone went flying in a shower of sparks and smoke, hitting the floor or several objects and then the floor. (I think gravity won this round, because the floor was the general direction everyone headed in….unless something was in their way and they kinda just draped over it.)

Everyone groaned and got up, rubbing heads and bruised appendages ruefully.

Kate sat up and Kradak was at her side instantly, gripping her arms, but the shock of the fall seemed to have jolted her out of her little episode and she smiled weakly, hiccupping every now and again.

When the smoke and dust cleared, they were able to get a good look at their surroundings. Hope summed it up in three syllables.

"Ho-ly fuck."

Blinking lights and flashing consoles surrounded them. Monitor screens, files cabinets and computers ringed the room, whilst in the center, was a circular creation that winked at them like millions of multi colored eyes. A bluish-white light shone down from them and in the air above the console, and between a similar one on the ceiling, the light gathered to form a young girl in a red dress and black shoes.

"**Hello**," she said. "**I am Queen, the main computer….how may I serve you**?"

**NOOO! Billy! Argh! How can I do this?!**

**-Sobs- I don't care if it adds spice, I don't wanna kill off BILLYYYYY!**

**Okay, okay, how many of you out there hate me? No, no! Don't flame me! It's all part of a plan I SWEAR! It'll all come together later…..I think….maybe….Oh, BTW…..i've heard that I can't put bloopers on this, which is a real bummer cause I wanted to. If that's not so, tell me, if it is, give me your email and I'll send my bloopers to you ok? Ok!**

**As always, review, review, review! Otherwise one of many things will happen, among them are:**

**I will never ever update.**

**I will kill off everyone and let Lawson win.**

**I will be evil forever more!**

**Bwahahahahahah!**

**Love yas!**

**XXXX**

**The _CrimsonMistress_.**


	7. Chapter VI

**Bonjour encore mes amis! I hope you are all well! Thank you so much for all your reviews! It's really great when I read your inputs!**

**Dhampeal: Yes! I am eeeeevil! Mwahahaha!**

**Cougar66: Awwww you flatterer! blushes**

**Darwin:.....shut up.....**

**Spawned inDarkness: 'Very good'? That's it? Jeez....'Thank you'**

**Andross937: What are you? A psychic???? SHUT UP MAN! Jeez! And anyways...I've changed it a bit...so you'll have to wait and see.....**

**Lashana and Telca: Thanks! I read your fics guys....but since you hadn't updated in ages, I didn't know if I should review or not....keep in touch!!**

**A little fluff in this fic.....sorry, just had to have it...**

Everyone stared at the holographic girl and she tilted her head.

"**Do I have something on my face**?" she scratched her freckled nose, and then looked at James. "**Hello Doctor Stevens. You look a little rough around the edges, have you had some trouble**?"

"We just came through the fucking wall," muttered Naomi. "No duh."

"Queen," said James. "Do you know who these people are?" He gestured at Hope, Naomi, Kate and David.

"**Hmm**," the girl studied them. "**Genesis Zero. Experimental soldiers. Classified. Failure.**"

"Nice to know we're loved," said Hope, picking bits of metal form her hair.

"**There seems to be one missing**."

Kate choked on a sob and they looked down.

"**Ah....I am sorry for your loss**."

"You're a fucking computer, what do you know?" snarled Naomi.

"**I apologies for my forwardness, you are correct. I know nothing of emotions.**"

"What...can you tell us?" asked David. "About genesis One, and us and all of this shit?"

"**Everything**."

"Then tell us," said Hope softly.

Queen tilted her head, "**Very well....I will tell you everything....**

"**Forty – seven years ago, on the eight attempt one Ellen Ripley was cloned successfully, including the alien queen within her. The project was a failure, with Lieutenant Ripley escaping, along with Xenomorph specimens. Exact occurrences on the ship are unknown, except for the fact that the ship crashed into earth, wiping out two hundred and fifty square miles of vegetation, sea and cities.**"

"**Wayland Yutani was not happy with this result, and decided to attempt this process again. DNA of five teenagers was discovered on earth, mingled together.**"

"The pool of blood," said Hope. "Right before I died...."

"**DNA separation was attempted, to an eight-seven percent success, to create five individual humanoids. The raw DNA of earth animals as extracted, harnessing their unique attack and defense abilities, instincts and senses, and combined with the DNA of the humanoids. They were called Genesis Zero.**"

"They couldn't separate out DNA completely," said Naomi. "Maybe that's why we can sense each other telepathically."

Kate sniffled, "I can't sense Billy anymore...."

Hope punched her arm lightly, "Come on K. Chin up. Remember the happy times ok?"

Kate nodded and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand.

"**Once awakened, it was discovered that Genesis Zero had poor motor skills and coordination. They were mindless and clumsy. Experiment was classified complete failure**."

"That's when we didn't have our souls," said Hope.

"**However, higher delegates were unhappy with the outcome, the subjects being too human. So they created Genesis One not long after. Both Geneses were recorded to have super-human abilities, but where all of Genesis one was humanoid, none of Genesis Zero resembled a human beyond eighteen percent.**"

"**Then, on planet LV-2116, marines captured a hunting clan of Predator warriors, and on the planet LV 1292, marines invaded a hive and captured a Xenomorph unlike any other, which has been classified a King.**" Queen looked at said aliens and nodded, "**Yes, these are the subjects.**"

"What else? What did they do?" asked Hope.

"**They extracted raw Predator DNA and Xenomorph DNA and combined them with human DNA for an experiment. Result: Partial success. Subjects one through twenty-two showed slight and varying adverse effects, though none fatal. Each was sworn to silence and released once more into the Marine Corps...In fact....one of them is among you...**"

Silence ensured and they turned to stare at the four remaining soldiers.

"It's not me!" said Spencer.

"Don't look at me!" said the fourth soldier.

Andrea shook her head.

They all turned to look at Shane and he closed his eyes in resignation, and then pulled off his shirt and singlet, revealing his muscular chest....marked with similar patterns as to the Yautja. Then he took two contact lenses form his eyes and revealed yellow irises.

"Fuck," said the other soldier, backing off.

"Is that....what you wanted to tell me?" asked Naomi.

Shane chucked the lenses to the floor, "Yeah....man I hated these things..."

"**Subjects ageing slowed down considerable as well.**"

"I'm about fifty seven," said Shane.

"Oh? You look good for your age," said Hope.

Shane seemed to be waiting for them to condemn him.

Suddenly Hope grinned, "Well then....you're marriage material, hey Naomi."

Naomi, who was ogling Shane, blinked, "Yea...huh? What?"

Shane smiled and she hugged him, almost knocking him over.

David grinned, "Great, now you two can have little hybrid children and we can start a race of weird hybrid people."

Everyone laughed.

"**Success proven, DNA was combined with Genesis Zero, to see if it could improve their coordination as it did the soldiers. Upon which time, their behavior changed dramatically. They became coordinated and alert, active, and aggressive, resulting in the injury of a dozen soldiers.**"

The girls chuckled and David grinned.

"And the changing of shapes?" asked Shane.

"**Assumptions, but not facts**."

"Then give us the assumptions."

"**It is believed that because you have so little human DNA compared to the other combined DNA, that you may be able to alter your shapes to suit the instincts and abilities needed. Has this occurred? Ah yes, I see now, checking the security tapes....the assumptions were correct**."

There was a moment of silence. Kradak looked at Queen and clicked in inquiry.

"**Yes, I shall tell them....**"

He nodded slowly.

"**Experimentation began on Predator subject one, an attempt to control him. To implant a control device in his cranium or extract the DNA that controlled free will. Result: Failure and mutation of the face.**"

"Mutation?" asked Hope.

"**_Mutation_**?" echoed Inaria.

"**_You humans are barbaric_**!" shouted Jegoret.

Kate walked over to Kradak and touched his arm, looking worried. He looked back at her and sighed, touching her cheek with his knuckle.

She tilted her head, You do not have to, Kradak.

Kradak showed no reaction to the sound of her voice in his head, They must know.

I understand.....and even if they do not accept you...you will always have a place with us, she smiled tentatively.

Kradak touched a talon tip to her none she wrinkled it, Thank you...I am sorry about Billy.

I know. Thank you.

Kate stepped back and Hope looked from her to the Yautja and then a gleam began in her eye, a sly smile curling her lips. Mercarian tapped her with his tail.

I do not think the hunter will take lightly to your interference.

Hope flooded his mind with innocence, Who? Me?

Mercarian grunted and then everyone turned their full attention to Kradak.

The Yautja Prince slowly unhooked his mask with bursts of his native atmosphere.... And then removed it.

Various sounds emerged from various throats. Mercarian grunted, but was otherwise impassive. Most looked shocked. Inaria blinked and glanced at Jegoret and Ifreet, who recoiled slightly.

Kate twined her fingers with Kradak's, glaring at them all.

Hope flashed her thumbs up.

"Actually," said Naomi. I don't know what you guys really look like, on account of those cool masks of yours, so I can't really compare..."

"That's what I said!" exclaimed Kate.

"I would say great minds think alike....but its you two...."

They glared at him and he grinned back.

James smiled too, even in this time of grief, when they had lost a loved friend; they saw the bright side of things.

Suddenly Tisarek crowed.

"**_They _affected_ your mind as well as your face_**!" he shouted. "**_At least this explains your irrational behavior towards the Oomans and the hybrids_**."

"**_Tisarek, be silent_**," growled Kradak, but there was no bite in his voice.

"**_The elders will execute you now, Kradak_**!" crowed Tisarek. "**_I won't have to meet you in battle to kill you; the elders will do it for me! You are pathetic! Stripped of your power by Oomans! How dishonorable! Father will know you for the wretch you are! Finally I-_**"

"**_Tisarek_**?" said Ifreet.

"**_What_**?"

"**_Shut the fuck up_**!" shouted Inaria, Ifreet and Jegoret.

Tisarek gaped, as did everyone else.

"Wow...." said Kate. "We're contagious...."

"Well duh," said David. "Before I met you, I was a rationally sane person."

"Yeah right," muttered Hope.

"**_Kradak is still my prince and commander, Tisarek_**," snarled the normally quiet Ifreet. "**_I would fall on my blade before I follow you_**."

Ifreet went and stood behind Kradak.

"**_As would I_**," said Jegoret, following Ifreet.

Inaria began to move after them, but Tisarek grabbed her arm, "**_Do not even think it, female._**"

Inaria dragged her arm free and gave him the finger over her shoulder.

The humans and hybrids laughed and Tisarek gaped.

Tension amounted in the room as Notak and Tisarek and everyone else faced off.

"**If I may**."

Everyone looked at Queen, who had been watching the exchange silently.

"**The process _is_ reversible**."

"**_It is_**?"

"**Indeed, please enter the lab across the hall, and I will reverse the process**."

Kradak hesitated, but James nodded.

"Queen is trustworthy. She is unable to do harm to anyone without good and just reason."

"**Indeed, that is very true. Please**."

Everyone filtered into the lab and saw a large capsule slide form the wall. Kradak stared, stepping back slightly.

"**I am aware this is very similar to the capsule in which you were operated on, Yautja, but do not worry, no external hands will interfere as I reverse the process.**"

Kate touched Kradak's arm and he looked at her, clicking softly.

"You don't have to..."

"**_I must....I want to regain my face..._**," Kradak sounded strained. "**_My race will banish me, or worse, kill me_**."

Kate twined her fingers with his and squeezed his hand and he squeezed back lightly.

I won't leave you Kradak, I promise, I'll rip that capsule from the wall with my bare hands if she's lying.

Kradak clicked and touched his forehead to hers, and the Yautja inhaled sharply. Hope looked around, and then grabbed everyone she could and herded them out of the door Tisarek and Notak hissed and snarled at her as she approached, and she started and stepped back.

Kradak whirled with a snarl, but Mercarian picked up both Yautja by the back of their loincloths and threw them out.

Hope grinned and winked at Kate and she and Mercarian vanished out the door.

Kradak watched them, head tilted in confusion. Kate growled.

"Matchmaker cow."

"**_What_**?"

Kate blushed, "Never mind."

Kradak tilted his head the other way, "**_I wish to know, Kate, what you meant_**."

"Well, Hope noticed that I....held certain feelings for you and that...she's going to encourage us to....get together."

"**_You mean mate_**?"

Kate blinked and jerked her head in surprise, "What? No! well....no! A relationship is more that mating!"

Kradak clicked again, "**_A....relationship? Like a Bonding ceremony? Where two Yautja who feel strongly about each other mate for life_**?"

"Yes! Exactly! Only, for humans it's called marriage..."

Kradak traced a talon over the side of her face, "**_I care strongly for you Kate. I know we have known each other for only a brief time....but I cannot imagine living my life without you. My race believes in Spirit-Share, where two people contain two halves of one spirit, and when those two halves meet..._**"

"We have that to, or at least, humans do, it's called soulmates."

(Awwww, they're soulmates....brings a tear to my eye... -sniffles and someone hands her a tissure- thank you –sob-)

"**_If we are Bonded, it will be hard for us....but I will protect you form scorn, I will hunt to gain more honor and skulls, I will-_**"

Kate shushed him, "I don't care about honor and anything like that." She hugged him tight. "As long as I am with you."

"**Please remove your armor, it will interfere with the process**."

Kradak slowly removed his weapons and amour and placed them and his mask on a table. He ran his fingers over his blade and Kate closed her small hand over his big on.

"Everything will be okay," she said and he clicked.

She turned and pressed her lips against his and he remained perfectly still. She pulled away and Kradak stroked her hair and touched his forehead to hers again, and then lay down on the table. Kate stroked his dreadlocks and he made a purring sound and she grinned.

"See you soon."

She stepped back as the lid to the tube slowly lowered and Kradak was clamped in place. He sucked in a deep breath as anesthetic gas filled the chamber and he soon went limp and the tube was sucked back into the wall.

"**I will invite your friends back in now**?" asked Queen gently.

"Please."

Outside, Hope, lent against the door, glaring at Tisarek, who was cradling his stomach after she'd kicked him away from the door.

"What was with that....forehead touching thingy?" asked Naomi.

"**_It is a great sign of affection_**," explained Inaria.

Tisarek scoffed.

"Like a kiss?"

"**_I do not know what that is_**."

"It's....a show of affection," said Andrea.

"**_A touching of foreheads is called a nicta_," **said Inaria. "**_Touching mandibles is a greater sign...but she has none_**."

"Mandibles?" said Hope. "Like an ant?"

"I don't know, I've never seen one with their mask, besides Kradak, and he had no mandibles," said James.

"**_He likes her very much_**," said Inaria. "**_Does she return the affection_**?'

"Oh yeah," said Naomi and Hope.

"Women," muttered David. "I'm not much for their mushy crap."

"A wise woman once said, 'Men are like mascara'," said Noami. "'They run at the first sign of emotion'."

"Who said that?"

"My mother."

Hope laughed.

"I think it's very romantic," said Andrea. "He's a prince and a great warrior, she's a damsel in distress who can kick ass. My kind of story."

"But this isn't a story," said Shane. "And this aint got a definite 'happily ever after' ending." (Lol, kinda like another story idea I had...Mac-11 CQB will know what I'm talking about.)

"**The Yautja Prince is undergoing the reversal process. It shan't take long**," said Queen. "**You may return now**."

"Okay," said Hope and everyone filtered back into the lab to see Kate sitting on a table,

She turned to look at them and they saw she was wearing Kradak's mask.

"Guys," she said. "This is way cool! Heeeey! It echoes in here!"

Hope took of the mask, "You're like a little child."

"**How else may I be of service**."

"Where are the other Genesis One?" asked Hope. "Maybe we can avoid them as we make our way to the Yautja ship."

"**I am afraid it is impossible**," said Queen. "**They are aware you have not only killed Sobek, but Reeshan too**.** They are out for blood and will not stop until you are all dead**."

"Crap."

"Well, points for persistence," said Kate.

"**Indeed, as we speak, I believe another Genesis One has picked up your scent.**"

"What makes you say that?" asked Andrea.

"**Because it is racing down the corridor towards this room**."

"Crap!" shouted Hope.

"**Gensis Zero....would you like some body armor?**"

"I would love it," said Naomi.

A door on the wall hissed open and five panels whirled, revealing five sets of unique body armor.

"Five..." breathed Hope.

"**One was for the other**."

"Billy," breathed Kate and Hope gripped her shoulder.

"**_Magnificent craftsmanship_**," said Jegoret as he examined them.

"**Each one is specially manufactured to fit each of you. It will also change shape to suit your attack forms**."

"You mean the beast forms we have?"

"**Correct**."

Hope reached out to touch her armor, when the door caved in violently.

Everyone screamed and whiled.

"Why didn't you say it was here?"

"**Because it is not**," said Queen. "**This is a different one**."

"A DIFFERENT ONE?" screamed Andrea.

"We have to get out of here!" shouted Hope. "We're trapped!!"

"I'm not leaving Kradak!" said Kate, grabbing Hope's arm.

"Kate, he'll be fine!"

"No!" shouted Kate. "I won't leave him! I _promised_ him I wouldn't leave him."

Hope stared as suddenly the door was torn from its hinges and Mercarian lunged though, taking the Genesis One back into the lab with his momentum.

"Go," said Kate. "I'm staying here."

"**_I will stay with you_**," said Ifreet and he chuckled. "**_It's what friends do_**."

Naomi nodded at her and a second later, she and Hope leaped out in their beast form as Mercarian roared in pain.

As David was about to leave, pulse rifle gripped tightly in his hand, he turned to say goodbye, and cried out in alarm.

Ifreet and Kate whirled as the other Genesis One, the one Queen had seen, lunged out of the ventilation system, and slammed into Ifreet.

He roared out as it threw him and then leaped on him again, raising one of it's two arms enging in a giant scythe and speared Ifreet through the chest.

(Ifreet!!! Ah! What am I doing?!)

Then it whirled and hissed at the other two Genesis Zero, it's four eyes glaring as it's long snout split almost in two to reveal a bony razor-tooth lined jaw and it roared.

David shuddered and his muscles rippled.

"Stand back Kate," he said. "It's happening...."

Kate scrambled back to the other side of the room, crouching at the base of where Kradak's tube had vanished.

David answered the Genesis's roar with one of his own as his body began to grown and his skin sprouted dark red fur.

**Duh duh duh!!! Evil cliffhanger!! How do you like that? One gave them a run for their money, now they're one Genesis Zero down and one Yautja down and there are TWO Genesis One!!! Sorry about that mushy bit back there all you guys who don't like fluff....but Angela's right! That's my kind of romantic story!!**

**You guys got any questions for my characters? I'm working on the bloopers! They'll come out once I've finished.....maybe if I add them to the bottom of my last chapter....?**

**Anyways keep an eye on Salvation, my fiction with Mac-11 CQB!!**

**Love yas!**

**The _CrimsonMistress_!!**

**XXXX**

**A little teaser....**

**Hope: on the next eposide of Genesis Zero, David finally gets his battle form and Kradak's face is restored, but Naomi, Shane and Jegoret are kidnapped!!! And a Genesis Zero and a _seriously_ pissed off Yautja dish it out......**

****

**PS: i AM aware of a little mistake before, but as you can see, i have reloaded this chapter and the mistake is gone...please excuse me, i was in a hurry! i'm human! i mistakes ok???**


	8. Chapter VII

Disclaimer: I do not own Aliens of Predator, for they belong to people who are not me and they own Aliens and Predator because they are not me and I don't own it so I'm not making any profit from this except for the pure and utter joy that people like my work and wish to read more of it and that's not monetary or financial profit but I do own my original characters, races and entities and I have already said I don't own Aliens or Predators so you can't sue me! –GASP!!!!– Deep breath! Breathe! Just breathe girl!

**AHHH don't eat me PLEASE!**

**Sorry it's been sooo long guys! Please don't flame me!! I'm SOWWY!!!!I know you're all probably soooo impatient. There is no excuse I know, but there have been people on my ASS so I thought, damn I had better take a hammer and chisel to this writers block! It just wasn't working for me, and it still isn't! But anyway, here it is! The next chapter to the epic adventures of Genesis Zero and their entourage! From here I promise it'll be mostly action action action with a little romance of course! Twists and turns and revelations galore!! Grab your popcorn, go to the loo one last time, sit back, relax, and fasten your seatbelts!!!!!**

Kate stepped back, pressing herself against the wall as David changed. His muscles rippled and expended and fur, dark red, like the color of dried blood, sprouted from his skin. His face stretched into a long wolfish snout and razor talons extended from his fingers.

Kate slid slowly down the wall, staring as David now stood nine feet tall, a wolf-like creature with long horns and spines along his back and a lashing tail tipped with wicked barbs.

The Genesis One roared again, luminous green blood dripping from the tip of one of its huge scythe-like pincers. Its huge snout snapped with bone-crushing force.

"You killed my brothers!" he hissed. "Now you will die!"

"I do not think so," snarled David and lunged at him. The two engaged in a fierce battle, two tail lashing, scythes and claws flashing.

"David!" screamed Kate.

David swung his head around, clamping his jaws about the blunt side of a scythe, swinging the Genesis One out into the hall.

"Stay here!" he growled at Kate and bounded after him.

"No problem!" whimpered Kate. "I'm not going anywhere!"

On the other side of the hall, however, things were going much differently.

Mercarian hissed in rage, tossing his mantled head in consternation as Hope bounded into the room and stared, as did everyone else.

The 'Genesis One' was a maintenance robot, and the ripped wires at its back clearly showered where someone had tampered with its programming.

"Fuck!" shouted Andrea. "A trick!"

They all whirled, Mercarian, Hope and Naomi a little more awkward than the others, in time to see a wolf-like creature attack a huge creature in the lab, luminous green blood dripping from one hand.

"**_It got Ifreet_**!" snarled Inaria.

The wolf creature snapped its jaws closed on part of the other's arm and tossed it into the Lab, everyone scrambling out of the way as it slammed into the wall, screeching, hissing and flailing.

The wolf creature bounded in and they glared at him, tense.

"_Oh I love you too_," he grunted out.

"_David you did it_!" said Naomi.

I'd hate to interrupt but our large friend is regaining composure, purred Mercarian.

It was huge and bulky, two huge pincers for its hands and fin-like plates of bone ran down its back. It was colored varying shades of red, its skin craggy and mottled, and its face a hardened snout lined with huge fangs, two blazing yellows eyes glaring at the wolf-creature. A tail with a huge scorpion's stinger swished behind it and smashed everything it touched. It scored deep gouges into the metal with its pincers and roared.

Hope, Naomi, David and Mercarian roared right back. No one saw the Yautja flinch.

"It looks like a giant scorpion on steroids," said Andrea.

"Maybe it's a relative of Merc's," said Shane.

Mercarian didn't acknowledge the jibe, stepping forward with Hope and Naomi since the thing was now cornered.

It hissed and its plates clattered, making a loud buzzing sound.

Tisarek, Notak, Inaria and Jegoret cried out in pain, clapping their hands to the side of their heads, their sensitive ears unable to take the volume, and the others all flinched.

Hope roared and she and Naomi leaped, latching onto the beast's back, ripping and tearing at the plates.

It roared and slammed against the walls, trying to dislodge them, but they hung on tight, digging fan, talon and blades deep into its hard skin.

Mercarian bounded forward, grabbing the tail as it tried to strike Hope and latching on, trying to rip it off. David slammed into its side, ripping and tearing its underbelly.

"Looks like the big-uns have it," said Shane slowly.

"Can we run now?" asked James.

When the plates were torn free, the clattering stopped, and the Yautja stood upright, to see the Genesis One crawling with the four companions.

Suddenly they were thrown in all directions and the humans cursed as acidic blood splattered the place from all four of them.

As they climbed to their feet, a sickening sound filled the air.

They all turned to look at the blood-soaked Genesis One, who was severely injured. His arm was nearly severed, his back and stomach a mess, his innards revealed and hanging out. His tail dragged limply and one eye was closed.

But they could only stare as, slowly, surely, visibly, every single one of his wounds began to heal.

Soon, he was whole and hale, laughing loudly.

"_I am Delnar_!" he shouted. "And I can regenerate any wound in less than a minute!"

Hope stood upright, "_Well then, we'll just have to make a wound you can't heal_."

"_There is no wound you can make_!" he crowed.

"God these guys are full of themselves," snarled Spencer.

"_I like a challenge_!" roared Hope and leaped forward. "_Let's start with your HEAD_!"

Kate hated feeling helpless.

She knelt beside Ifreet, his breathing labored, his hand in hers squeezing weakly.

He was dying, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it.

She stroked his dreadlocks and swallows, glancing at the place in the wall Kradak was.

"Queen? Is there anything you can do for him?"

"**I am afraid not…I am sorry…I feel…grief…it is strange**."

Kate nodded slowly and Ifreet coughed, the clicking emerging from behind his mask. She did not know if she should take it off…she had seen Kradak without his mask, but he said that was not his true face. What did they look like?

Did she want to know?

"How long?"

"**Not long**. **If I put all of my effort in, I could be faster, but I will not be able to watch over you-**"

"Do it."

Kate bowed her head, the fait sounds of battle reaching her ears, the bleeping and whirring of machines all around her.

Above her, in the vent through which Delnar emerged from, two razor hands grasped the edge and two to the sides and a head on a long neck emerged, its body, crawling up onto the roof like a giant spider.

It had eight, many jointed legs that grasped the roof as it moved silently, a long tail with a spear tip curled close to its body.

Its hide was black and chitinous and its snout opened wide in a silent snarl. Its streamlined head had a mane of sparse white hair and two arms ending in spindly black fingers. Its body was segmented, an abdomen and an upper torso, and the abdomen had a tail tipped with a long stinger.

Kate looked down at her friend, grieved.

"Oh Ifreet I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "It's foolish to say you're going to be alright but….I wish you were. Oh God I wish you would be ok!" She bowed her head and willed him to be alright, wished him, as of the force of her will could make that wish come true.

When Ifreet's harsh breathing became easier, she looked up, and stared.

Wounds on her arms were oozing blood that crept into his wounds and, where they touched, they were rapidly healing.

Kate sliced her hand open on a jagged bit of metal and dripped more blood into his wounds, watching their combined blood, red and green, heal his wounds amazingly fast.

Ifreet turned his head, dazed, looking at her then down to his wound.

Both were so mesmerized, that they did not notice a hiss from behind them and the Genesis One arachnid slowly lower itself from the roof, it's for taloned hands to snatch her up, completely silent.

Ifreet's depleted strength grew as is blood was replaced and his eyes became more focused and he immediately began to struggle, but the wound in his chest was still healing and prevented him from talking.

Kate lifted her head from the spectacle when Ifreet became distressed, coughing and clenching his fist around her small fingers.

"Ifreet, what's wrong?" gasped Kate, alarmed. "Ifreet? Calm down! You're just gonna hurt yourself again!"

Ifreet tossed his dreadlocked head and slammed his fist into the ground in consternation, pointing.

Ifreet wheezed and choked out, "**_Behind_**."

Kate's eyes widened and she turned….too slow!

The Genesis One reared back, lashing out with its arms, taloned hands aiming for a killing blow to Kate's chest, throat, head.

Kate cried out, leaping backwards reflexively, but too little too late, the Genesis One's hands would reach her in a nanosecond, and in that nanosecond, Kate felt, and saw, the tattoo-pattern of golden feathers flit across her skin.

Kate didn't even have time to scream when, suddenly, the Genesis One was torn off the roof and yanked away from Kate.

Kate turned her head and stared at her savior.

Kradak's reversal process had been completed. The hiss had not come from the Genesis One, but from the tube as it released him. He looked truly fierce now, the mutation of his face had demoralized him, but now…

…Now he was the true great warrior of his status and reputation.

Mandible spread wide, mouth open in a Yautja roar of hatred, Kradak descended on the hapless Genesis One with only his taloned hands.

He slammed it against the walls and ripped one arm free, before tossing it, screeching and flailing, into the hall.

He whirled and looked Kate over and she god a clear look at his true face. Deep-set eyes and four mandibles over a sharp-fanged inner mouth.

Kate stared for a moment, then she realized that Kradak seemed to be waiting…for her decision. Her acceptance or rejection….

…her revulsion.

So, this was a true Yautja face? The face that lay under the mask of all of the others?

Kate merely smiled.

Kradak's eyebrow ridges shifted and his lower mandibles clacked closed and his upper ones flared in which she knew instantly was a his own smile.

"Go get 'em."

Kradak grabbed his spear, ignoring his armor, and ran across the hall.

Kate turned back to Ifreet who, once her hands had been removed from him, his wound had ceased to heal and commenced to bleed.

Kate returned to his side and once again dripped blood into his wounds and they began to heal once more, but she didn't notice.

Kate stared at her hands as feathers flitted over her skin and her fingernails lengthened into talons, then slowly returned to their normal appearance.

"**_Leave me_**," gasped Ifreet.

Kate looked at him, "Ifreet.."

"**_My wounds are healed enough, I can deal with them, go, the others need you_**."

Kate stared a moment, then surged to her feet and ran across the hall to join the others.

Delnar had Hope pinned as he slashed at the others. They were all bleeding from various wounds, none very serious, but Hope had her throat exposed and one swipe could rip her throat out.

Delnar was riddled with burns and bullets holes, slashes and tears, but before their eyes, just like the last time, and all the times after that, every single on of his wounds healed.

"This guy's fucking indestructible!" shouted Spencer.

Shane staggered back from a blade-swipe and fired again, "He has to have a weakness!"

"_We need to make a wound that he cannot heal_!" shouted Naomi.

Suddenly Delnar roared and whirled, David on the end of once pincer, as he slammed him into some computer consoles.

"_Is this how you defeated my brothers_?!" he shouted. "_Ganging up on them! You know you are so weak you cannot defeat them alone! You are pathetic and you know it! just lie down and die! None of you can fight me and hope to win_!"

He raised a talon to impale David and his wolfish maw stared up at him in abject horror.

Hope slammed into Dalnar, knocking him through the wall and into another room. She set upon him, ripping and tearing.

"_You are not magic_!" she screamed. "_You are not immortal_! _There is a reason you regenerate at that speed_!"

Dalnar screamed and thrashed as Hope ripped into him, blood and entrails and flesh flying and coating the walls.

Suddenly something struck Hope, a dark creature with white hair and flailing legs.

"Klethi!" panted Delnar.

"Brother!" said the chitinous creature, throwing Hope off it with three of its obvious four arms, the fourth no more than a ragged wound in its joint. "You are badly hurt!"

"As are you sister, your arm!"

"It will heal."

"Keep them off me until _I_ can heal, sister."

"Of course."

"Sister?" said Andrea.

"_Well duh_," said Naomi. "They _couldn't all the boys, right_?"

Hope keened in pain, her leg broken, and Mercarian hovered protectively over her, licking her comfortingly.

Nothing will harm you, Hope, not anymore. I am sorry that the creature hurt you.

Hope crooned and winced in pain, "_I cannot hold my form_…"

Then change back, the others have your back.

Hope slowly changed back from her battle form to her human one, panting, her blood coating her body, her leg at an odd angle.

Suddenly Inaria was there, taking a small box form her back, "**_Lie still and relax Hope_**."

Klethi hissed and reared up and the spear-tipped tail snapped out faster than lightning and David leaped aside, landing on the wall and snarling.

"_Bitch_."

But she did not strike in a ploy to attack, but to get him away from her goal.

Klethi screeched and lunged at Naomi and the two became a tangle of blades and legs and tails.

Naomi dug her hind talons and fangs in, ripping and tearing with her talons whilst Klethi jabbed with her legs and tail repeatedly.

Naomi screamed and slammed herself from wall to wall, bleeding heavily.

David leaped into the fray, only to be knocked away, and Mercarian refused to move from Hope, no matter what.

The other humans and Yautja couldn't even get close or take a shot for fear of hitting Naomi (not that that didn't stop Tisarek and Notak from trying).

David, instead, leaped at Delnar.

Klethi, seeing one of her two remaining siblings in danger, leaped on David and hurled him away, and she spat a web of stickiness from her mouth, adhering him to the wall.

As the others fought to get him free, Klethi turned on Mercarian, Hope and Inaria.

But before she could reach them, a terrible roar rent the air and a huge form leaped from the doorway, whirling, dreadlocks flying, slamming a spar into Klethi's shouders.

Klethi screamed shrilly as Kradak, his mandibles flared wide in hatred, landed on her back and dugs his hind talons in and ripped at her back and neck with one taloned hand, using the spear as a handhold.

Klethi screamed and heaved form side to side, throwing herself against the walls in an effort to rid herself of the Yatuja Prince on her back. Her legs and arms and tail lashed and jabbed. Kradak grabbed the barbed tip of her tail and ripped it clean off.

Klethi screeched.

Kradak roared.

She threw herself forward and rolled, tossing Kradak from her back, but also ripping the spear free in gouts of blood.

Klethi staggered back, clutching her bleeding shoulder, and lay on the floor, as Delnar surged to his feet, now fully healed.

But before her could act, Jegoret leaped forward and dropkicked him with all of his strength and Delnar staggered back. Then David head butted him in the chest, then Naomi whirled and struck him with her tail.

All of these efforts drove Delnar inexorably back to the room, to the gaping hole in the lab where they had originally come through after Billy's fall to his death.

Delnar was still a full foot from the edge, but just as his grin returned, a piece of equipment on the floor sparked and disconnected and slammed into his chest, causing him to teeter, and then tumble back off the edge with a roar.

Everyone stared.

"**I detested that creature**."

"**_Queen_**?" breathed Kradak.

"**Indeed. I decided I would have a hand in this fight….by the way, your friend who was injured is going to be alright**."

"_How can that be, he was practically dead when I last saw him_!" asked David.

"**_Where is the other one_**?!" shouted Kradak and they all whirled.

"**She has vanished into the ventilation, I have no way of tracking her**."

"Damn," said Hope, standing upright, her clothes rags once more, but she did not care.

"Where's Kate?"

"**She is healing Ifreet**."

"How?"

"HRRROOAWR!!!!"

Everyone whirled at the echoing roar that emanated from the shaft where Delnar had fallen through.

FWOMP!  
"What the fuck?"

FWOMP!

"**_I have heard that sound_**," said Kradak.

FWOMP!

Everyone stared as it rose up over the edge, grinning, hissing, laughing.

Delnar.

With a pair of great leathery wings that had been sitting under the skin of his back.

"Why won't you FUCKING DIE?!" screamed Hope, amid the sound of Inaria putting her broken leg back in place.

No one would risk leaping out into the abyss, they could tell it would be suicide, not even the Yautja were willing to die that way.

Delnar knew this, and he loved it.

He swooped around, tail streaming behind him, like some grotesque dragon.

Hope hissed, "If only I could go back to my battle form! I have wings!"

David snarled, then a second later, bother he and Naomi reverted to their normal forms.

Delnar whirled and plungled, slamming against the hole, his tial lashing out and spearing the marine (who no one knows his name) and flying away before anyone could react.

"NO!" screamed Andrea. "Alec!" (there we go)

Delnar roared and toyed with the marine, before eating him.

"You sadistic BASTARD!" screamed Andrea "FUCK YOU!"

Mercarian spread his wings and prepared to launch himself at Delnar, but Hope grabbed his ankle, the closes thing to her, and he glanced down at her.

"Wait," she breathed.

David and Naomi were staring over their shoulders at the hall way and, slowly, they moved out of the way.

Hope struggled to her feet, "DELNAR!"

Delnar paused in is meal and looks up, "What?"

"You fuckhead! You can't fight! Your brothers were assholes who practically begged to die!!!" screamed Hope.

Everyone did a double take and stared at her.

Hope are you MAD?! cried Mercarian.

Delnar dropped the body and hissed at her, turning from where he had coiled, his talons deep into the wall.

"You are failures! Rejects! You couldn't fight your way out of a paper bag! and what are you! Look at you! You're not even anything! At least we still look like humans!"

"Ahh, Hope," said Andrea softly. "What the _fuck_ are you doing?"

Hope panted, keeping her eye on the shifting Delnar and gritted out, "Getting him mad."

"Oh, I se…um..WHY!?"

"Delnar, you are a freak! A mutant! You could fit in NOWHERE! You have no life, no future! Your some monster out child's fairytale! You would never have won! You have LOST!"

"NO!" roared Delnar. "We are perfect! We are the ultimate warriors!"

"No you're not! You never are, never will be!"

"I'll show you!" shouted Delnar, leaping from the wall and streaking at her.

Mercarian cried out and leaps, but something pushed him down, a force on his shoulders, as someone sued them as a platform, leaped off him to collide with Delnar in mid-air with a screech

Delnar squawked in surprise as he was slammed back into the wall, talons raking his chest deeply. A huge feathered creature screamed and flapped its four wings and flew away, long tail streaming behind it, its talons stained with blood. It was a bird, for all extensive purposes. A huge bird with a long plume, fingers on its wing joints, large streaming tail and a wicked beak.

Everyone stared as the bird circled around again and struck Delnar hard, ripping from the wall and hurling him against the opposite side.

There was no question who this giant bird was.

"Kick his ass Kate!" screamed Naomi, having returned to her human form.

Kate happily obliged as Ifreet limped into the room, a ragged sort of covering over his abdomen.

"Good to see you buddy," said David and Ifreet nodded.

Kate and Delnar careered from side to side, no finesse or anything. They just tried to rip each other apart

.As Kate and Delnar fought, Tisarek hissed long and low.

"Tarei hsan s'yuit-de," he spat and Notak turned to him slightly. "How dare she take this battle from us!" He turned his plasma caster towards her, but a clawed hand clamped down on it, turning it away forcefully.

Tisarek turned with a snarl, his brother's name on his mandibles, but froze upon seeing who had stopped him.

"Notak!"

"No, Tisarek. You cannot harm the Ooman."

"She is not even Ooman!"

"She is a great warrior, brave and honorable."

"Pauk! Notak you sicken me! You are pyode! Soft!" Tisarek knocked his friend's hand away and aimed his plasma caster again.

"NO!!!" shouted Notak and leaped forward and everyone turned, even Kate and Delnar were distracted a moment.

They all stared as Notak leapted towards Tisarek, whose plasma shot was knocked awry and struck the wall far from Kate and Delnar.

"Pauk-de s'yuit-de!" roared Tisarek and shoved Notak hard, his writ blades scoring his shoulder…

…and Notak tumbled off the side.

Kradak roared and tackled Tisarek, "You dishonorable swine!!! I shall kill you myself for his death!"

"Look!" shouted Hope.

Kate had torn away from Delnar and folded her wings as soon as she had seen Notak fall, diving after him.

Delnar roared, as he was now free to attack and swooped towards the opening.

Then, as they aimed their weapons, a tail wrapped around his neck and yanked him down with an "URK!"

Kradak and Jegoret wrestled with the struggling Tisarek, but then a hoge foot came down on his back, pinning him down.

They looked up to see Mercarian's grinning maw.

I may not like you hunters, but I really hate him.

Kate streamed down, dragging the thrashing Delnar with her. He talons extended and Notak saw her coming and started to bring his plasma canon around.

Kate hissed and whirled, slamming Delnar into a pile of protruding metal, spearing him, and dove beneath Notak and flared her wings, slowing her fall until she felt a soft impact on her back and then flapping hard and latching onto the side of the shaft.

Kate looked down and saw the jagged remains of the platform and shivered and look up, seeing anxious heads peer over the side of the hole at the top. She was in the middle. From the bottom you couldn't see the hole and form the hole you couldn't see the bottom, but she was obviously in the place where both could be seen. Kate started to climb slowly, feeling Notak holding on tight.

"**_Why did you save me_**," he breathed.

"_Because that's what friends do_," she said back.

"**_But…_**"

Suddenly she heard screaming and shouting and looked up, to see her friends pointing and gesticulating madly.

"_What_?" she asked, mystified.

Then it hit her.

Literally.

Tisarek had gotten free of Mercarian and leaped over the side, and now he slammed right into Kate's bird-like face.

She screeched as he leaped from her and latched onto the other side of the shaft.

"_Notak get off_!"

Notak climbed off her back and onto the wall as she dropped a few meters, then turned to Notak, the side of her face bleeding.

"_Climb up and tell the others to keep going_," she hissed. "_This is between me and him_."

She turned and began climbing down to the bottom of the shaft, Tisarek following suit.

Notak hesitated, then climbed up the side of the shaft. A huge black tail reached down and wrapped around him and lifted him up.

Instantly a face was thrust against his mask.

"WHERE IS KATE?"

Hope was now standing, her broken bones already half healed, but it was agony to put weight on her leg.

"**_Kate and Tisarek have gone down to the bottom to dtai'k-dte_.**"

"Fight?" breathed Naomi.

Notak nodded.

"We can't leave her," said David.

As they were discussing this, Klethi reached from the ventilation and grabbed Shane and stung him before he could react.

She bound her and dragged her into the vent, then grabbed Jegoret and did the same. Then her long-fingered hand grabbed Naomi's shoulder, but something flared along their psychic bond and the others whirled and raised their weapons.

Klethi dragged Naomi, kicking, thrashing and half-drugged up as a shield, "Shot me and kill her."

They paused.

"I'm not as dumb as my brothers, I know what you're like. But I also now know that the Genesis Zero are two members short, which works to my advantage."

"You're still outnumbered!" shouted Andrea.

Klethi purred, "Which is why I'm doing this. I have three of your friends, if you want them back, be in the engine rooms within two hours, or the halls will ring with their screams as I begin to eat them…slowly…while they are alive."

She laughed shrilly and vanished.

"Bitch," spat David.

They caught a flash, an impression.

_Go_.

"Kate?" asked Hope softly and everyone looked at her and David.

_Go_. _Catch up…fight…win…_

Hope scowled, "Kate wants us to go."

"**_NO!_**" shouted Kradak. "**_We will not leave her_**!"

Hope looked at Kradak, "She promised not to leave you, Kradak. Tisarek isn't going to stop her."

Kradak shifted, uncertain, and Inaria clattered to him softly.

Kradak grunted and unlatched his blade from his waist and walked over to the edge and dropped it down.

He then closed his eyes.

_Love…you_.

_And I you Little Knife, come back to me alive_.

Kate and Tisarek squared off. Kate had shed her battle form and now she stood in shredded shirt and pants, glaring at him.

She never knew where they came from, because she could have sworn she wasn't wearing them when she was in her battle form.

"**_My brother is blinded, a fool, because of you. When I kill you, his vision will be clear again_**."

"I doubt it."

Tisarek glared at her, then looked up. Kate looked up too, then a blade slammed down into the floor beside her.

"**_Kradak_**!"

"Kradak…" Kate drew the blade smoothly from the metal and admired it, then looked at Tisarek.

Tisarek regarded her, then, slowly, began to shuck his armor.

Kate only watched as each piece of heavy metal fell to the ground with heavy clangs.

Soon he stood in only a loincloth and clasped his spear in one hand.

He clattered, then roared, his mandibles flaring in his hatred for her.

"Kiss my ass."

He leaped at her, whirling and she ducked, slamming her shoulder up into his jaw and slashing across his chest, a bright green ribbon opening up.

_Kill or be killed, kill or be killed_.

Kate chanted over and over. She wasn't an eighteen year old virgin anymore. She was a cloned killing machine.

When Kate had been 'alive' in her time, she had watched action movies, then scenes with hand-to-hand fighting. The carefully coordinated moves so actors and extras weren't hurt.

This was nothing like that.

Tisarek was mad, crazy, psycho, ipso facto insano.

And he wanted her dead.

Not a good combination.

He hack and slashed every which way, at everything. Kate was more preoccupied with running than fighting.

She leaped up and ducked behind a bar, the spear clanging against the side and brought up her blade.

Tisarek roared and lunged forward, and her blade slammed into his shoulder.

But before Kate could pull it out, he twisted away, tearing the handle from her hands and ripping the blade free. He then tossed it away and faced her, unarmed and helpless.

Kate scowled, then swallowed. "I can do this." She assumed a defensive position and waited for him to attack.

"Gotta get rid of his spear."

She leaped back and away from him, far out of his reach.

Tisarek roared in frustration as she climbed slender beams, something that wouldn't support his weight. Tisarek drew back his arm as she slipped and her back was turned, and threw it with all of his might.

Kate felt the disturbance of the air and let go of her handhold, the spear glancing off a jutting piece of metal and clattering somewhere on the other side.

Kate cried out as a deep cut was opening in her am as she fell, landing lightly on her feet. A second later, the metal sheet behind her was ripped apart and a seriously pissed of Yautja reached for her.

Kate leaped back and tripped over a piece of metal and fell hard, then rolled as Tisarek's clawed foot came down where her head was.

She flipped back and landed on a sheet of metal, then slammed into him hard, knocking him back. He roared and grabbed her shirt and flung her hard, slamming her into the wall.

She grunted and fell to the floor with a cry. Tisarek stomped towards her, shoving metal out of the way, having grabbed his spear and raised it for an overhand blow, only to be met with a piece of piping she had grabbed.

Tisarek snarled, "I am a great Yautja warrior, you will be defeated by me!"

Kate rolled away and leaped to her feet, swinging the pipe around like a baseball bat.

Tisarek barely blocked it.

She whirled around and thrust the jagged and towards his chest, but he twisted away. Kate whirled the pipe around her wrist and swung at his head, but he ducked out of the way and slammed the shaft of the spear out into her gut, knocking her down. She rolled out of the way and kicked the back of his legs.

Tisarek fell flat on his back, his dreadlocks fanning out, then rolled to the side as the jagged and of Kate's weapon slammed into the floor where his head was.

He curled his mandibles in delight, it was stuck! He surged to his feet, his talons raking down towards her face. Then she grabbed the pole and used it as leverage as she flung herself sideways, slamming both of her feet into his chest and sending him staggering back.

Kate slashed at him with her spear and the lunged forward, slamming it through his shoulder. He roared and whirled away, ripping it out of her hands, but she hurled a piece of shrapnel and it slammed into his stomach.

He lunged, despite his wounds, and she barely ducked out of the way as the spear slammed into the wall of the shaft, his hand yanking off it a nanosecond before it was charged with electricity.

Kate leaped up and whirled, her foot making connection to the side of his head, sending him reeling. Three punches had one of his mandibles broken and he fell to the ground, coughing up blood, more of the green liquid oozing from his wounds.

Kate stared down at him as he moaned softly, panting, blood trickling from her own wounds.

"I'm not like you, Tisarek, I hate you, but I don't hate you enough to kill them in cold blood. You're beaten, Tisarek. I've won, now I'm going to catch up to the others, you can stay here and bleed to death for all I care."

Kate turned and spotted Kradak's blade lying a few feet away and moved towards it. as she picked it up, she heard heavy footfalls behind her and saw a flash in the blade of the knife. Kate whirled as Tisarek ran at her, slamming her blade into shi back as he passed, pushing him forward, into the sparking spear projecting from the wall.

Tisarek roared and jittered on the spear, thousands of volts of electricity coursing through his body.

Kate stepped back as the smell of cooked meat filled the air and swallowed, barely keeping from retching.

She turned slowly and walked towards a set of half concealed doors, when a shadow fell over her.

Kate whirled as a huge paw slammed into her and sent her flying into a wall. Kate screamed as she hit the floor hard, then was grabbed and hurled again into a pile of metal rolling away before it fell on her.

She looked up and gasped, "Delnar!"

The Genesis One was beaten and bruised, his wings a mangles mess, obviously too preoccupied with killing her than healing.

He lunged for her, but was slammed back into the ground by something else, something blue-white and pissed.

Kate cringed as the two fought viciously, the white-blue creature ripping Delnar apart. Suddenly there was a sickening crack of bone, a rending of flesh and a wash of blood as Delnar's head was ripped from his body.

Kate pressed back against the wall as the beast turned to her, fangs bared and bloody, eyes alight with fire.

Kate screamed.

**Well there you have it, the next chapter and I hope to get the next one up and running…soon . Yeah well, creative criticism wanted! I have a mind block the side of… something big . Anyways, please please PLEASE don't flame me I know it's been ages but…hey, no one's perfect!**

**I love you all! Your reviews are what keep me going!!!**

**XXX**

**The _CrimsonMistress_**


	9. Chapter VIII

Disclaimer: I don't own AVP at all time infinity to the power of infinity squared ha HA!!

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**OK ok people have been on my ass to update sooner so I am going to…well I'm writing this the day after I posted my last chapter so yea….**

**Thanks for all the reviews guys it really helps when people tell me how good I am, not that I don't know that but yeah it's nice to hear it from someone else.**

**I love keeping my readers in suspense but I didn't mean it to be THAT long! Also, I have another story coming out soon that is the sequel to the AVP movie…well you'll have to wait till it comes out…and perhaps another story that warps the idea of predator and prey….**

**He he I have PRAISE!!! Oh BTW, I doubt ANY alien is mindless, maybe I should do a fic about that too….taps her chin**

**Everyone's been HOUNDING me to know what the blue-white creatures is and I can't wait to tell you, and it will be in this chapter…I think. Anyways, we last saw our other heroes running after Klethi because she took Shane, Jegoret and Naomi to the engine rooms, and Kate was facing the great-blue white creature. Ok, settle back, now, and enjoy!

* * *

**

They had been attacked not two seconds after turning from the hole, a dozen humans armed to fuck all had rounded the corner and their bullets had ripped one of Mercarian's wings to shreds and shorted Ifreet's plasma caster, but other than that, it was the humans themselves who suffered.

Hope and Mercarian had leaped into the lab and rolled, Mercarian's acid bloodburning away the metal beneath them. Hope had settled him down, with Queen promising to care for him, and a killer idea had popped into Hope's head.

Literally.

The others were pinned down in the fire and Jegoret was forced to use his speargun, strapped to his back until now.

Notak, seeking to redeem himself, had flung himself at the soldiers, his wrist blades bared, crimson blood flying about him and staining the walls.

Which is when the other soldiers appeared at the other end.

The others roared warnings and Notak had turned…too late!

The soldiers opened fire on the exposed Yautja and he stood tall, braced for death.

He was not braced, however, for the huge section of wall that exploded outwards, engulfing all of the bullets in mid-flight, effectively stopping their forward momentum.

A huge armored figure stepped from the hole and turned to Notak, "Are you alright?"

The voice was warped through the metal grill that looked like bared jagged fangs, the glowing red eyes of the helmet scanning him.

Notak nodded.

"Good."

The figure turned and walks towards the soldiers and they opened the fire. It was like trying to stop a dinosaur with mosquitoes. The only thing it did was kick up sparks.

Everyone watched, agog, as Hope walked inexorably towards the human soldiers.

The first human was met with a crushing blow to the side of his head from the back of Hope's hand. The next saw only an oncoming metal fist before he knew no more. A third and a fourth were hurled into the walls and a fifth attempted to attack, but was met with a kick that sent him flying.

The sixth and seventh that remained standing turned and ran.

Hope let them go.

Her helmet slid back to reveal her face and most of her armor folded back from her body as she turned.

Mercarian poked his head out of the laboratory and saw the dead and unconscious men and chirped something.

"What?" asked Hope.

I missed out on all the fun

Hope smirked.

Suddenly she started pulling bits of armor off and dropping them to the floor.

"What are you doing?" asked James.

"It's cumbersome and heavy and I don't like it," she said.

"Well that's that," said David.

Hope stared at him for a long moment and he nodded. For years they had been friends, hanging together, doing everything together, rarely had it ever been two.

Hope rubbed her chest and Mercarian sniffed the bits or armor. As she kept a few bits, chest plate, gauntlets, helmet, a panel like a skirt.

She flexed under the armor and found it adequate.

Inaria stepped forward, "You will have better armor when you come with us."

Mercarian shifted slightly and Hope looked at him, "What?"

Mercarian seemed to run though a list of answers before saying, I need to feed.

The others seem to accept this, but Hope just looked at him suspiciously. Mercarian lowered his head and nudged her and she rubbed his mantle, smiling as he crooned.

"Come on," said Andrea. "The engine rooms are this way," as she turned and walked down the hall.

The entourage followed her.

* * *

**Engine Room**

Naomi moaned and shook her head, looking around. There were pipes everywhere, and a dull orange glow from below. She was bound to a small pipe by some kind of webbing, dull grey and tight like steel. Near her was Shane, and a little further away was Jegoret.

Naomi couldn't see, hear or smell Klethi at all, but it didn't mean she wasn't here. Naomi inhaled deeply, catching the always present metal tang of the ship, but this time where was some sort of burning substance and chemicals. From all around there was the sound of hissing steam and moving gears.

Naomi looked down at her bonds and flexed, but they didn't move and inch. When she tried to change forms, she felt herself being crushed. She turned back and glanced over as Shane moaned and stirred and looked around, taking in what she already had in the nanosecond it takes to process though.

Then he looked over at her, "I'm going to kill that bitch."

Naomi blinked, "I do hope you mean Klethi and not one of my friends."

Shane blinked and nodded.

"Good."

They lapsed into silence.

"-Shane."

"-Naomi."

They both smiled.

"You go."

"Naomi…I'm sorry for everything that's been done to you. If I had know…if anyone had known…"

"There was nothing you could have done," said Naomi softly. "There's nothing anyone could have done. And it doesn't matter does it really? What anyone would have done, it's too late for that, stop concentrating on the past and figure and damn way out of here."

Shane smirked and attempted to wriggle, but he found the same problem as she did.

"What is this stuff? Steel?"

"Might be," said Naomi. "Wouldn't put it past Kelthi to be able to spin a web of steel."

Suddenly there was a _sh…whrrr…nk_ and they both looked over as the now wide awake Jegoret who had tried to detract his wristblades in the webbing and found himself unable to do it.

"**_Great_**."

Naomi smirked, "Damn men if you had just asked _me_, who has obviously been awake longer than you, and has most likely already tried to escape…. "

"**_Shut up_**."

Naomi shook her head, "She took one of each…."

"So?"

"It's a trap…..now…we need to work out how it works before our friends come to rescue us and fall straight into it."

After a few minutes, Naomi looked over at Shane and said softly, "Shane…."

He looked up at her.

Naomi was now at a loss what to say, so she simply settled for, "Thanks."

Shane slowly smiled, and Naomi knew that he knew.

"Welcome."

* * *

Hope slipped up the wall of the Engine room and faintly heard Mercarian doing the same on the other side. She lightly leapt down on a girder and slithered along, trying to locate her friends. 

She caught a flash of human, then saw it was only Spencer, stepping along a walkway and slowly climbing down to a lower level, followed by Andrea.

Hope blinked and thought to herself, '_Wow is that all the humans left? Damn they dropped like flies_.' She continued climbing.

Mercarian settled in a recess as he scanned with his pheromone sensors, his eyes closed, the two smaller eyes in his mouth open. Humans were blue, the Yautja green, and his own race was red. The flash of gold was Hope and he had seen the other Genesis One as a dull murky brown.

He then caught a flash of the brown and snapped his head around, tensing. He flared his newly healed wings and scented the air, but saw nothing.

Hope, I think Klethi is near the large pillar emitting steam….now…

Alright…I'll tell the others.

Mercaria slipped down the wall and crawled over to the area he had seen Klethi and scowled.

_'She's not here.'_

_'Be careful Mercarian.'_

_'I will.'_

Suddenly he saw a flash of color and turned slowly. They had deliberately broken up into consecutive race groups so they could know when they had found the others, because they would be the only group with different races.

Mercarian climbed to the left, I have found them, they are near the centre of the room, on a platform suspended over a large pit, three large pipes driving through it to which they are bound.

I see them, came David's reply. Spencer and Andrea are with me.

Mercarian saw one gold and two blue auras crouching near one entrance to the platform, and saw four green sitting near another.

Mercarian fixed on the lead hunter, Kradak. He had been quiet, subdued, since they had left his mate, Kate behind. The scent of anxiety was thick over him. He worried about Kate greatly, Mercarian only hoped it would not affect his judgment in the battle to come.

Suddenly he saw a large gold form leaping down and landing lightly at the last entrance to the walkway and he dropped down next to Hope.

_'Where is she?'_

Mercarian knew she was referring to Klethi.

_'I do not know. I thought I saw her….maybe I was mistaken.'_

_'You know very well you weren't.'_

Hope seemed to weigh the options, then slowly crept forward, her large dragonish form slow and stealthy, her talons silent as the gripped the side of the walkway as she crept forward.

Five steps in and a third of the way across, Naomi snapped her head around, her mouth covered in some sort of webbing, and frantically shook her head.

Hope froze.

Naomi jerked her head back towards Mercarian and kicked her legs urgently. Jegoret saw Hope and did the same.

Suddenly a huge mental image flooded Hope's mind from Naomi. Klethi returning, dragging seven unconscious human behind her, climbing under the platform with three, then coming back up with none. She then proceeded to climb about the room with each stunned human, and each one vanishing somewhere, before leaving the engine room.

Hope stared into Naomi's frantic eyes, catching her terror, her memory of hearing ripping and rending flesh, terrified screams, agonized screams, death gurgles. Hope felt sick as Naomi sent her the sound of things…eating….molting…growing….scuttling claws, gnashing fangs, hunger, the need to kill and feed and grow.

Hope recoiled slightly and glanced at David, his wolfish talons to his head in horror telling her he too had seen what she had.

Hope swallowed and gripped the platform tighter, lowering her long neck down to stare under the platform.

Three men hang from their ankles from the platform…or what was left of them. Their chest cavities ripped open, their flesh stripped from their bones, they were nothing more that desecrated bloodied skeletons, and not one of them was complete.

Hope felt herself retch and was about to draw her head up when she saw something under the walkway. She turned her head and saw a coiled slimy creature curled up under the platform, presumably asleep.

She stared at it, eyes narrowing, then screeched and reeled backwards when she realized it had been staring right at her, black, soulless eyes leering right into her own!

The beast leaped for her a heartbeat later and missed, landing on the side of the pit, then flared its eight legs and leaped again, slamming into Hope this time and knocking her…off the platform.

Mercarian roared and lunged forward, but two more of the monsters dropped on his back and tore into him.

Another two fell in the midst of the Yautja and they scrambled into action, and another two launched themselves at the marines and David met one in midair, falling into a lower part of the engine room in a mass of flashing claws and fangs, flailing legs and monstrous screeches.

Naomi thrashed and screamed against her bonds as her friends were beaten down by the hideous beasts.

They had thought Klethi was going to ambush them.

But no, Klethi had left them to her monstrous offspring.

* * *

**Elsewhere**

Klethi ripped into another human, assuaging her hunger, her previously molted skin laying lifelessly behind her as her new carapace hardened and expanded.

* * *

A huge blue and white beast stopped and lifted its bloodstained snout, a zeal of battle fury dancing in its eyes as it heard inhuman screeches and louder roars and the report of gunfire and plasma casters.

* * *

Deeper within the ship, Lawson bared his teeth in an animalistic snarl, watching the cameras as he readied his own plan, his hands skimming over controls. Strangely though, even though he had cut his hands and wrists to free himself when Reeshan attacked, there was now no sign of any wounds on the unblemished skin…

* * *

**The Engine Room**

Mercarian had his fangs buried in the neck of one of Klethy's children, his hard incisors had punched through the carapace of the monstrous spiderling. As he beat the other one with a pipe he had wrenched from the wall. The beaten spiderling recoiled as he grabbed one if it's pincers and ripped it off its face, then hit it hard, knocking it away. Mercarian grabbed the thrashing creature from his mouth and impaled it's head on the jagged end of the steaming pipe still embedded in the wall, and its struggles ceased.

Mercarian was covered in scratches and bites, but still he leaped back into the fray.

Hope was leaping from place to place with the offspring hot on her tail. She leaped again and turned as she landed, slamming into the offspring and plummeting down, down, down towards the engine room floor, a writhing mass of flesh, and exoskeleton.

David was in a berserker-like stage, having gripped the back of the offspring and swung it from side to side, slamming it against everything about him as it thrashed.

Naomi had grown sick of being helpless and dug her talons into her hand, the acid eating away at the webbing and she broke free a moment later, quickly freeing the other two.

Jegoret clapped her on the shoulder and ran to help his friends and Shane nodded once.

"Kill them."

Naomi gave a bloodthirsty scream and leaped, slamming into one of the offspring attacking the predators and carrying it with her for one on one.

The predators then concentrated on attacking the single one left to them, as Inaria knelt over the wounded Ifreet.

Ifreet choked on his own blood and Inaria knew this time, there would be no miraculous healing. His would was mortal, his three chambered heart nearly cleaved in two.

Ifreet would die a warrior's death and he knew it.

Inaria closes her eyes and gripped her brother's hand as his gasps slowly ceased and his tight grip on her hand slackened.

When she opened her eyes again, he was dead.

Inaria snatched up his spear and with a primal roar, she leaped into the fray again, vengeance for her brother burning in her heart.

The offspring didn't know what hit it when it was slammed against a pillar, a spear lashing over its carapace with deadly intent. The other Predators leapt into the fray with howls of bloodlust, in their element against this deadly foe.

The Marines ran.

The beast barreled behind them, hissing at the bullet wounds in its carapace, when a grenade slammed into its back and blew one of its legs off. It whirled as Shane leaped as well, dragging down a pipe and slamming it into the offspring and rolling away, his golden eyes flashing, the Predator and Xenomorph DNA lending him strength.

David slammed his opponent again and again against the steel floor then dropped its pulped body to the ground with a feral grin, leaping up and landing on the back of the creature attacking the marines and ripping into it with frenzy.

Hope and her opponent leapt away from each other and circled slowly, hissing and snarling.

They sized each other up, before Hope leaped, landing four gashes across the beasts face, one of its pointed feet impaling her shoulder, and still they fought on.

Naomi slammed against the floor and the beast reared over her, ready to impale her head on a pincer-like foot, but she lashed out with the blades on her forearm and sliced one leg in half, and jerked the same leg on the opposite side and digging her talons into its underbelly and pushing it away and it rolled onto its back.

Naomi leaped on it and tore through its underbelly and throat. Moments later she leaped out of the pit, covered in blood, her opponent dead.

Mercarian jerked his head sharply and ripped his opponent's head from its shoulders and it fell and he slithered off to find Hope.

The creature fell before the might of the Predators and Kradak ripped it's skull out with a triumphant scream.

David grabbed the creature and the marines secured its thrashing legs ash they tossed it into the opening of a pipe and, a nanosecond after they dived out of the way, the pipe mouth exploded with steam and gobbets of flesh and exoskeleton.

Hope arched her back and ripped four of the creatures legs off and stood tall, hurling it hard into the wall, then snatched it up with her tail and whirled it again, slamming it into a pipe and then lashing out with her taloned hand, driving it through the head of the beast, killing it.

Klethi jerked her head up when she felt the absence of her children and screeched, whirling, racing down the corridor towards the engine rooms.

Hope fell to her knees and changed back, her muscles spasming with exhaustion, and gentle hands picked her up and cradled her to a cool black carapace.

At first Hope thought it was another of the hellish offspring, but then Mercarian's huge maw nuzzled her and he crooned soothingly.

Naomi dragged herself up and Shane supported her as Andrea and Spencer held up David.

"**_Ifreet's dead_**."

Everyone turned to look at Inaria's grief stricken eyes as she held her brother's head in her lap.

Kradak approached her, "**_He will receive full honors, Inaria_**."

Inaria looked down, "**_What is at the bottom of that pit_**?"

"A main reactor," said James after Hope had translated. "Mainly a huge furnace."

"**_We will put him in_**," said Kradak and he lifted Ifreet's head and Notak his feet.

A moment later they all stood silently as Ifreet fell towards the orange glow, his weapons clasped in his hands, his masked face expressionless even in death. Inaria clasped his spear tightly and attached to the belt was his self destruct device.

Naomi touched Inaria's shoulder and she looked sharply at her and then was enfolded in the hybrid's arms.

Inaria was thankful for the comfort, resting her forehead against Naomi's shoulder.

After another moment, Kradak said softly, "**_We need to keep moving_**."

They made their preparations and Naomi donned the armor that they had brought for her.

Suddenly a familiar voice rang through the engine rooms.

"**Klethi knows you killed her children and comes for vengeance**."

"Queen?" breathed James.

"**No time for questions professor, she is near, I cannot see her on my cameras**."

"Yes, I am _very_ near."

They whirled and saw Klethi standing on a walkway, approaching them slowly, her eyes crazed with fury.

"You killed them, my beautiful children, you killed them! I'll kill you!!! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"

With a sickening sense of realization, Hope realized they were all too battered to fight Klethi, not in this vengeance maddened state she was in.

She stepped out onto the walkway and everyone slowly filtered onto the other two, but Klethi's gaze was fixed on Hope and she leaped, cutting Hope off from escape.

This close, Hope could see Klethi was much different that what she used to be. Bigger, stronger, Hope doubted she could piece her hard carapace with her talons, but now that she was in her human form..

Mercarian roared and leaped forward, but Klethi's spinner arced a web of that steel-like substance and cut them off from helping her, the webbing stringing from between the two pillars.

Klethi turned to Hope and flared her mandibles, baring her dripping fangs.

Hope lifted her chin as her armor slid over her body, providing as much protection as it could.

As Klethi reared to strike and Hope tensed to strike back, a huge red bird slammed into her side and latched on with its talons.

Klethi screamed and thrashed, but then a large blue-white beast struck her and ripped off as many legs as it could before dropping down onto the walkway and the bird did a loop de loop and dropped Klethi, screaming her lungs out, down into the furnace far below.

The bird landed lightly on the back of the blue and white dog-like beast and changed back.

Hope felt her stomach to a loop de loop.

"Kate."

Kate winked, "Queen helped us find you, and the armor."

"**_KATE_**!"

The webbing was torn away and Kradak grabbed Kate in his arms and crushed her too him. Kate flailed.

"I…can't…breath!!!"

Kradak put her down and ripped off his mask, pressing her face to his, his mandibles moving over her face. Kate kissed him back.

"Oh god, get a room," muttered Spencer.

"Tisarek?"

"Dead." Kate brandished Tisarek's spear and gave Kradak's blade back.

The blue and white beast remained where he was, staring at them all.

"Who is this?" asked Hope.

_'You don't recognize me? I'm hurt'_

Hope felt her knees buckle and Naomi cried out and Daved gaped.

The blue and white dog like beast, that stood on all fours, blade and spines emerging here and there, slowly changed back.

Before them stood Billy, whole and healthy and grinning all over his face.

Hope and Naomi tackled him and they went sprawling.

Everyone moved off the platform and it was a happy reunion of them all.

"What happened?? How did you survive??" gasped Hope.

"I thought I wouldn't," said Billy. "As Reeshan and I fell, I changed forms, I hit the bottom hard though, got knocked out. When I came too, I was disorientated, confused. I saw Kate and Tisarek fighting, and damn was that a fight. I was about to step in when she killed him. I went to talk to her but she didn't recognized me. She screamed and tried to attack me. I kinda knocked her out."

Kradak growled and Kate laughed.

"By the time she woke up I had gotten control and we made out way up, climbing up the side of the shaft and through the hole. The computer AI Queen told us where you had gone, what had happened, so we followed you and well…you know the rest."

"We need somewhere to rest Queen."

"**There is an abandoned wing of officer's quarters** **nearby**."

"Food too?"

"**Yes.**"

"Well let's go."

As they walked, Hope said suddenly, "Queen, what do you know about the remaining Genesis One?"

"**It is unstable, violent, and the strongest of all the Genesis One**."

"Of course it is," muttered Billy.

"**I cannot find him**."

"Of course you can't."

"Billy."

"Sorry."

"**Genesis One subject Thanatos is adaptive and cunning, and is Anamorphic**."

"Thanatos?"

"That's Greek for death," said Kate.

"Great," muttered Andrea.

Naomi and Shane hung back with Inaria, whispering to her, comforting her about Ifreet's death.

Hope trusted they'd care for her.

"Anamorphic?"

"**Thanatos can assume the shape of anything he touches**."

"Great."

They turned into the officers wing and it looked like they'd just stepped into the damn Four Seasons.

"Shiiiiiiit," said Spencer.

"Get some rest and recouperate," said Hope sharply. "Mercarian, myself and Andrea will take first watch. Queen, seal off all the entryways you can, see if you can find Thanatos and make sure the Yautja ship isn't touched."

Hope watched them go about with her orders and felt world weary.

She couldn't shake the over whelming sense that she would die on this ship.

* * *

**Duh duh duh!!!! I did it! Another chapter! How was it? Was it good? Remember those reviews keep me going! They're the fuel in my fire! O.O a Yautja and a human kissing, anyone say ew and I'll set Mercarian on you. I think it's romantic. You found out Billy's ALIVE! I told you there was a purpose to it ;).**

**Anyway, I want a total of 5 yes FIVE review before I post the next chapter . I am now accepting anonymous reviews so REVIEW one and all!!!**

**I love you all! Keep reading!**

**Crimson Mistress**


	10. Chapter IX

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah BLAH

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**I know! I'm a bad bad girl! But I've been very sick and very busy this year and I can't formulate any ideas! I hope this chapter will make up for my irresponsibility and complete lack of devotion to my fanfiction! I'm so happy all of you have stuck with me even though I am so neglectful! I just tie myself up with too many things nowadays!**

**Something also tells me that Salvation isn't going to work…I don't know if it's just me but…it just seems too hard to do!**

**Anyway! Please read this chapter! I wanted t make it extra long for you but I decided to give what I had and keep going!**

**I'm so sorry to all of you! Please be patient, I'm doing this as well as I can!

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**

Kate and Kradak were cuddled together in a large officer's bed, sleeping, Inaria was sitting at one end of the hall after relieving Andrea, silent, James was working on a computer for some mysterious reason, Billy, David, Spencer and Jegoret were sprawled in some sort of lounge, snoring as boys want to do, Notak sat in another room, cleaning his blades, Andrea was working out in a gym and Naomi and Shane were sleeping in another room, in separate beds, but Hope was trying to correct that.

"Just pick them up and put them in the same bed."

No.

"Oh come on don't be such a wimp."

If you knew the life I lived you wouldn't be calling me that.

Hope gave him a flat look.

The two were in some sort of lounge; Mercarian crouched in the entrance, Hope leaning against the wall, flicking through a book she found.

Why is it so important for them to sleep together?

"They care about each other."

So?

Hope sighed, "They're being stubborn, and if they're left to their own devices I know they'll_ never_ hit it off."

Perhaps if they don't have the courage to speak of it themselves, then how will they have the condemnation they will obviously experience from others with their union?

Hope blinked a few times, "Wow."

She looked up to see Mercarian looking at her with one mercury-filled eye. He was a well of unexpected knowledge and intelligence. He kept his silence and Hope had assumed that he had nothing to say. Now she wondered if he wanted people to think thus.

Slowly his head turned and nudged her cheek. Her hand rose to press against his snout and her lips caressed his.

What was that?

"A kiss."

You kissed me?

"It would appear so."

Mercarian ran his hands over her hair, But I am not human.

"Perhaps you haven't been keeping pace, because neither am I."

You were once.

"Not anymore."

Mercarian shifted away and a gusty sigh escaped his mouth. Hope scrounged around until she found some sort of health bar and ate it.

"How old are you, Merc?" she asked suddenly, drawing his attention back to her.

She felt him going through her mind and she knew he was looking for her version of years.

Six hundred and twenty-nine he said finally.

Hope whistled.

Do humans not live that long?

"We live to be about 90 ish. But James says that we should live to a loooooooooot longer now, because of your DNA, how old can Xeno live for?"

Mercarian shrugged, a new gesture for him, There has been no known Xeno to die of old age, we are all slain in one form or another. And if there was, we can't exactly keep contact long-distance.

Hope blinked, "Someone told me Kings were rare, like, there were always one Queen for a hive, but drones and things can change to become a queen, but few people have seen a king, and fewer have lived."

Merc shifted so he was curled around Hope and she stroked his elongated head, Kings can change shape and molt and we are …psychic is the word I think. Kings are rare, it takes one mating with a King for her to be fertile for the rest of her life, and she can also pass her fertility to other young queens. But for new queens that are alone, for instance, if they changed and there was no other older queen to pass on her fertility, the Queen would send out a telepathic mating call, I suppose, and the closes Kings would send a call back. The Queen then would decide who she wanted, based on distance and experience, depending on her situation. The King can then reduce his size and stow away on a ship, or regress back to facehugger and stow away within a person until he reaches her. At which point he will emerge, feed, grow and mate with her, then leave.

Hope looked disgruntled and stroked her face with a finger, That is a necessity, some instinct we are born with, Hope, I will not leave you, nor mate with another, I see in your mind what your perception of a mate is, rarely does a King and Queen remain together in a hive, but it has happened, and those hives are so old and powerful, consuming entire planets before the Queen and King move on. The mating pair are extremely difficult to defeat, which is why many Queens attempt to ensnare the King that comes to mate with them. I am old, older than most, and you, my dear, have ensnared me far better than any cage of resin could.

"Awwww," Hope nuzzled his face, "you're so sweet."

He purred, And I like what I see in your mind.

Hope instantly turned bright red.

I saw that too.

She laughed, then touched her gritty self, covered in dried blood and soot, rumpled clothing (Her, what seventh set!) and gritty hair.

"I need a shower…"

Shower?

Hope looked up at him, "Water, falling down on you, and you wash yourself beneath it."

Like a waterfall?

"Except the water is warm."

Warm?

"Ok, I have to show you, come on." Hope got up and leading him into the showers and locking the door firmly behind them.

Hope kicked off her boots and stepped into the shower, off to the side, and turned it on, the water cascading from several faucets in the roof, a room made for multiple people to shower at once, and just big enough for an alien king to stoop in.

Hope had her arm stuck under the water and looked back at Mercarian, who crouched at the entrance of the shower block, sniffing the air.

"Come on! Step under!"

You first.

Hope arched a brow, "But I just got these clothes on."

Do you need them?

Hope's other brow joined her first.

Ah yes, I see now, what your clothing represents, a type of modesty and WHAT WAS THAT!

Hope blushed hard but burst out laughing at the scandalized sense she got from Mercarian.

Mercarian stepped further into the room and Hope skittered back, still laughing. He stepped forward again and Hope slipped and slid backwards into the shower.

"Dammit I'm drenched!"

Mercarian laughed and stepped under with her, spreading his wings so he shielded her from the water and lifted his face into the spray.

It is nice.

"Told you so."

Mercarian moved his wing and Hope squealed as water once again poured on her. Then she lay down and laughed.

Mercarian made a strange huffing sound she realized was a laugh and bared his fangs in a Xenomorph smile as he leaned down, nuzzling her body.

Hope laughed, then sat bolt upright as she heard a sound like a snapping and cracking of bone and a crinkling of cellophane. Mercarian had his eyes tightly shut and a look of almost agony on his snout (If she could tell) and his wings were curled closed to his body, hiding almost all of him from view.

"Merc? Merc!"

The wings now hid his entire form and, as Hope reached towards him, they swept aside to reveal a 7 foot tall Mercarian, standing more upright now, his snout bent down to watch Hope, water sliding down his exoskeleton.

"Wow…"

I can change size, and how about this?

Mercarian touched her face and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Hope."

Hope gasped, "You can TALK! I mean, like, normal sound talk!"

Mercarian nodded, "I was able to shape some semblance of vocal chords."

Indeed, his voice was accented with slight hissing and a whispery softness of cloth being dragged over leaves.

Hope liked it.

She lifted her face to the spray of water and twirled around, laughing. Mercarian watched her, a smile curling his lips. She turned to him, blonde hair plastered to her shoulders, a huge grin on her face and then squealed as he picked her up and twirled around with her, hissing softly with glee.

Later Hope towel dried her hair and stared out a window to a holographic picture of a quiet neighborhood street with the perfectly manicured lawn and green BMW and the neighborhood kids throwing a Frisbee to a dog behind a screen of sprinkler water.

"What is wrong?"

Hope turned around and saw Mercarian, still in the form he was in when they shared the shower, standing with his head cocked at the doorway.

"Nothing…"

His slender fingers touched her face, "I know it is not nothing, I feel despair and sorrow from you…"

Hope sighed and nuzzled his hand and he drew her into a hug, "I don't know what I'm going to do, Merc. Everything…it's so different. I remember everything from when I was alive…then there's all of this. It's all so strange. So different. It's like…I don't know what's real and what's not… Remember it all so clearly. I don't know if this isn't a dream. If I won't wake up suddenly. Or…if all of before was just a dream. A beautiful, wonderful dream…"

Mercarian's long fingers stroked Hope's hair and his elongated head rested against her back as he let out a gusty sigh.

"Whatever happens, Hope, I'll be with you. Not because I owe my life…but because for the short time I have known me, you have awoken feelings within me I never knew existed. Feelings I can't put a name to. They're so strange and so strong they…they frighten me but….at the same time…I don't want those feelings to go away."

Hope looked up at Mercarian, staring into his mercury eyes, and then smiled.

She embraced him tightly, and, a moment later, Mercarian was staggered by the feeling of her mind opening and embracing him completely. A tremor wracked her body and her soft cry let him know the same had happened to her. The complete sharing of mind and soul. It felt as if they were bound so completely together. A billion strands of incorporeal and insubstantial thread, as small as spiders silk but as strong as steel binding their beings together so completely, if one was to break away, both would bleed to death.

Hope lifted her pale face and looked up at Mercarian, and he stared back. The sensation was completely alien to both of them and neither could completely comprehend what had happened.

As they stared at each other, the tiny hairs on the back of Hope's neck stood on end and she stiffened. Mercarian, sensing the change, lifted his snout to scent the air.

Whatever it was would have to wait, for something was about to happen…

For good or bad…was yet to be determined.

Naomi rolled onto her back and looked up at the roof, aware of Shane's arm wrapped loosely around her stomach, her back to his chest, his breath warm against her ear as a gentle smile touched her mouth.

She didn't know when they had moved. Neither of them was in their beds anymore, instead they were both on the floor, wrapped in several blankets and each other. A cozy love nest.

Shane nuzzled Naomi's neck, "Hello Sleeping Beauty."

Naomi laughed slightly and sat up, smiling down at him, "Any idea how we got here?"

"None."

"I'm not complaining…"

"Neither am I…"

They looked at each other for a long moment, before Naomi coughed and stood up, grabbing her jacket, "We should probably go check out the-"

She broke off with a gasp as Shane stood, grabbed her, whirled her around and kissed her soundly.

Naomi just stood there as he leaned back and muttered, "I wanted to do that from the first moment we had a civil conversation."

He ran his fingers over her face, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and running the very tips of his finger over a crease in her face caused by the pillow.

Naomi lifted her face to brush her lips across his, but was interrupted when an inhuman screech rent the air like a blade and an explosion rocked the floor.

Kate sat bolt upright and Kradak rolled away from her and came into a crouch, grasping his weapons.

Kate was past him and out the door, then gasped as she heard Mercarian scream in pure rage and go barreling down the hallway trailing human gore, causing her to dive back into the room, into Kradak's arms, as he slammed the three combat synthetics into the wall and tore them apart in a fury.

He whirled again and his powerful hind legs launched him back the way he came and he ripped into the human soldiers, heedless of their bullets that pierced his tough exoskeleton to the soft flesh underneath. One man fell to the ground, screaming and clutching his face as acid sprayed over him.

The humans and predators stared in amazed horror as the Xenomorph king went insane and snatched up a Corporate and shook him like a terrier with a bone, dropping him. When he found no more living prey, he let out a scream of unadulterated rage and bloodlust, smashing everything around her.

Kate slowly approached him, pushing Kradak's restraining hand off her arm.

"Merc?"

He didn't seem to hear her and ripped a computer console off the wall and his talons tore through the metal like it was the flesh of the corpses that now lay in bloody ribbons all around him.

"Mercarian."

He jerked and looked at her, his mercury eyes seeming to glow with red, his carapace flushed with blood and vivid yellowish in sections.

He roared at her and stepped around, his hind talons gouging rivulets in the floor.

"**_Kate_…**"

"Shh," Kate made a placating gesture behind her, not taking her eyes from Mercarian's rage-filled ones.

"Mercarian…what happened?"

He twitched and hissed, baring his fangs as his bloody talons extended.

"Where is Hope?"

That seemed to get through to him and a huge shudder wracked his body and he whirled and slammed his huge head into the wall, making a sizeable dent.

"Mercarian!"

He turned and snarled at Kate, walking forward until he had her pinned up against the wall. He ignored the others' and the laser Kradak pointed at his head and hissed down at her, his lips peeling back from bloody fangs, dripping gore to the ground.

Watch your tone, flesh.

Kate looked up at him, ignoring his fangs, staring into his eyes.

"Where is Hope?"

He roared and stepped back, his arm lashing out, his talons raking furrows in the metal above Kate's head. She gasped and ducked and Kradak stepped forward, but Naomi grabbed him.

"Stop!"

He looked at her, "**_Release me! He will kill her_**!"

"No he won't just wait, "

"Who took her?"

The soft question from Kate drew their attention back to her and the huge black creature towering over her petite form.

Mercarian roared again and his tail cleaved through the wall into an officer's quarters.

"Who took her?" Kate repeated with infinite calm.

The humans Mercarian admitted slowly. …They came and…shot her and…there was no blood, sparks though, she convulsed…the Strange Ones, the ones with no aura…they came and…held me back as they dragged Hope away…I couldn't do…anything.

Kate knew this moment was important. Her reaction could send him into a rage, or give a positive response. She reached out and touched his arm and he looked down at her.

"We'll get her back," said Kate. "But we need to form…"

She jerked her head around and stared at the end of the hall, and it was then the others noticed the other three Genesis Zero were alert as well.

Mercarian hissed, That is how Hope looked before…

Once again he was cut off as the door at the end of the hall slid open.

Lasers and weapons were trained on the open doorway.

"Naomi," hissed Shane. "You guys get behind us."

"What! Why?"

"Just do it!" snapped Spencer.

Reluctantly Naomi, David, Billy and Kate moved behind Mercarian who stood, now aware of his many wounds, though superficial, were painful.

Though, a moment later, he remembered what had happened with Hope and turned with a roar as several combat synthetics stepped out from the hole he had made when going through the wall in his rage and shoot the remaining four Genesis Zero easily.

The convulsed as the electrical charge that accompanied the specially formulated sedative had them comatose instantly. As their bodies slumped to the ground, the others turned to fire at the Combat Synthetics and they retreated under cover.

Mercarian let out a roar and charged down the hall again, disappearing through the hole.

"Does he ever learn?" asked James.

Andrea, James and Inaria agreed to stand with the unconscious teens as the others followed Mercarian through the hole.

Andrea removed the darts from their necks and she and James checked them over. They heard a strange whooshing sound from Inaria and they looked up to see her tapping her wristpad, watching the unconscious forms at her feet.

She looked at them and realized that she had no means with which to communicate with them, now that Mercarian was gone and their translators were incapacitation.

"**_They…are…well_**," she growled out in their language finally, feeling the pain those difficult sounds caused to her throat and mandibles.

James nodded and stood slowly, looking down as Inaria and Andrea trained their weapons the direction the males had vanished to.

James scowled as the hairs on his arms stood up. He thought he heard something…

Glancing down at David, Kate, Naomi and Billy, he saw they looked peaceful other than the puncture wounds and vivid red splotches on their necks.

Slowly, James turned around to check behind him, and the butt of a pulse rifle smashed across his face, and he joined the others on the floor.

Alerted, Andrea and Inaria turned, but Andrea caught a fist to the stomach and she doubled over, another fist catching her in the face and she slumped down to the floor, dazed.

At the same instant, four of the Corporates tackled Inaria, taking her to the floor. She let out a loud roar, calling the others back to her as she wrestled with the Oomans.

Spitting out expletives, she caved in the skull of one with a backhanded blow and gutted another with her wrist blades.

Her mask was ripped from her face and, momentarily dazed, she shook her head, then caught a fist to her cheekbone.

This barely fazed her as she rolled, taking one of the remaining Coroperates under her and smashing her head forward, her heavy skull, the bone three centimeters thick, easily crushed his.

Inaria then turned to grab the Corporate on her back and, in a primal act, her mandibles spread wide and she clamped her fangs on his throat, snapping her mandibles shut and wrenching to the side with one violent movement. Blood splattered her exposed face as she dropped the gurgling, dying man to the floor, spitting out his disgusting flesh.

She heard the click of a gun and whirled with a roar, bloody mandibles spread wide, but Andrea had recovered, was on her feet and Inaria's plasma fire was accompanied by Andrea's pulse rifle bullets.

The Corporates at the doorway were reduced to bloody ribbons almost instantly.

The others returned to see Inaria, Andrea and James, who was regaining consciousness, looking belagured in the hall.

"**_WHERE IS KATE_**!"

"**_We were attacked…_**," breathed Inaria, spitting out more blood. "**_They took them whilst we were fighting_**."

Kradak strode down the hallway and Inaria stood tall, eyes narrowed.

He looked at each of them, then snarled, "**_We will follow them and get Kate back_**."

Shane knew, from the way Kradak looked at Andrea and James, that he blamed them for what had happened. Andrea was fighting to regain her composure and James was fighting to stop his nose from bleeding.

You pathetic creatures!

They all turned to look at Mercarian, standing at the hole.  
You lost the others as well! Not just Hope! You cannot be depended on!

"Hey!" shouted Spencer. "YOU lost Hope"

Do not speak to me that way! roared Mercarian. I will not tolerate flesh speaking to me with such disrespect!

"Disrespect! You who devour humans with no thought to who they are, the families they have! My BROTHER was eaten by one of you bugs!"

Mercarian stepped closer to Spencer, Speak that way again and I will make you watch as I devour your wagging tongue, flesh.

"Guys stop it!" shouted Andrea. "Enough!"

Shane put a hand on her arm, "Stop."

"No!" shouted Andrea. "Mercarian's gonna kill him!"

"Thanks for your faith, Ree!" snarled Spencer.

"**_We should leave the Oomans and go search for Kate_**," said Jegoret.

"**_We cannot leave them! We made a vow to help each other! On our honor we must stick with it_**!" argued Inaria.

"**_We must at least leave the kainde amedha kind behind_**," snarled Notak. "**_Can you imagine the Elder's reactions if we brought one into our caste_**?"

Inaria shook her head, dredlocks flying, mask limp in her hand, forgotten in her distress, "**_I cannot believe I am hearing this! My ears must be clogged with te'dqi! You are suggesting that we, Yautja Honored Warriors, go back on our word? How can we hold out heads high with honor, go on the hunt, when this tarnishes that which we live for!_**"

Kradak looked at Inaria for a moment, then said soflty, "**_Then choose, Inaria. Keep your honor and stay with these pathetic pyode amedha, or come with us. No one will know. It will remain buried with us, and any who reveal it will thei-de, die._**"

Inaria looked from Kradak, to Jegoret, to Notak, who were all looking at her silently. Her upper mandibles flared in an expression of extreme shock and her eyes widened. She then lowered her head and replaced her mask.

"**_As you wish…_**"

The others nodded and turned and headed to the end of the hall.

"What the!"

Andrea grabbed Notak's arm and he whirled with a snarl, pushing her back into James, who caught her at the expense of his nose starting to bleed once more.

"**_Do not touch me, pauk-de Ooman_**!" he roared and whirled, following the others at a trot.

They turned on their cloaks and vanished down the hall.

The humans stood stunned and Mercarian hissed.

So, this is how it ends.

He turned his silver eyes on the others and bared his fangs in a smile that held no warmth or kindness.

I will find Hope and the others. Then we will escape. Make your own way, flesh.

He turned and vanished into the ventilation system.

The humans were left, shell-shocked a the sudden dispersal of their group.

Shane said softly, "Since…I'm not human…"

"Don't even think it," snapped Andrea. "We're in this together. We'll find the others and tell them what happened."

"I reckon…" said Spencer slowly. "We should…get out of here…whilst we can."

"What!" shouted the other three.

Spencer shrugged and ducked his head, "The shit's about to hit the fan, you know. A Xeno King and a Predator hunting party loose on this ship? Along with another hellish Genesis One? We should cut our losses and leave now…"

Shane strode forward and grabbed Spencer's scruff, "Don't you _ever_ speak like that again, Marine. Ever. We are going to find the others, we are going to put things right then, _and only then_, are we getting out of here."

Spencer glared up at him.

"Do you understand?"

"Perfectly…._sir_…" snarled Spencer.

Shane released him and stepped back, nodding, then whirled and walked away.

"James, we need to find an armory, we need to stock up."

Spencer fell in last, behind Andrea, so none could see the mutiny that burned in his eyes.

Lawson rubbed his hands together, grinning at the security console as he watched them fight and break up.

"This is going much better than expected!" he chuckled.

He heard a pneumatic hiss behind him and saw the rest of the Genesis Zero dragged into the holding bay and shackled beside their beaten 'leader' Hope, who was still comatose.

Lawson bared his teeth in a feral grin and he turned his gaze to the darkened room through the double-paned reinforced bullet-proof glass at two glowing eyes in the depths of the cell beyond.

"Isn't it going well, my darling experiment?"

Claws raked the glass and an inhuman scream pierced the air as it had no effect on the glass.

Lawson's gleeful chuckle echoed through the room.

Down in the holding bay, Hope's eyes flickered open for a moment, then closed, but the corner of her mouth tilted up in a sinister smile.

* * *

**Oooooo! They've split! Shows how much Genesis Zero kept them together, hmm? Giggles I hope I haven't given tooo much away! Lol, I have the ending typed out already! Let's hope it fits! Dances I'm so happy I got this chapter finished! Your reviews have helped motivate me! Don't stop because I'm a naughty girl!**

**I know I shouldn't have demanded an amount of reviews but…I'M SORRY! I was being childish at the time soo shrugs**

**Anyway! Read, enjoy, and REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**

**XXXX Crimson Mistress**


	11. Chapter X

**I am aware that it has been a long time since I have put up a chapter, but I am starting a new year at a new school, so the transition has been difficult. Also, the time in which I set aside to finish this chapter, six teenagers were taken from us in a tragic accident, all of whom I knew and I attended each one of their funerals, including a brother and a sister. So this has been an extremely difficult time for me. I appreciate everyone who has stuck around and been patient for this chapter. I ****don't know how well it is going to go, but here it is.**

**

* * *

**

The ship was vastly abandoned. The evacuations having occurred long ago, when the containment cells had been breached. The officers, the soldiers, the scientists. Most had fled upon the order to jump ship.

Currently pods were raining down on the planet known as Earth, slamming into the ground set aside for such emergencies.

Most pods landed without incident. One missed the ground and slammed into a roadway, cleaning out three transportation vehicles. One impacted with a control tower.

All in all eleven people lost their lives in the descent and landing, and one pod was bumping against the side of a satellite, containing seven men who had engaged the emergency stasis sleep.

That way, when the oxygen ran out in the pod, none of them would know it.

All in all, the only people on the huge space lab christened the _Empathy_ were a few Corporate soldiers and scientists.

Oh, and a dozen or so genetically manipulated creatures.

You can imagine the _Empathy_ was rather quiet, the occasional groan of metal and thruster adjusting usually the only sound that rang through the corridors.

Outside, the space hulk was silent, but, before you think the huge hunk of metal, completely out of place floating weightlessly in the vast star-lit expanse of space was completely silent, something shattered that belief.

The blood-curdling, spine chilling scream of someone in agony.

* * *

The agonized scream tore through the ship's metal hull like a blade through flesh.

Naomi's form bucked and convulsed in the restraints as electricity danced over her pale skin.

"STOP IT, YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HER!"

Lawson looked over at David as Naomi slumped in her manacles, his finger lifting briefly off the button. The button to which sent the command to hundreds of wires that touched Naomi's body through the manacles on her ankles and wrists.

The brunette's hair hung in sweaty dreadlocks, her chest heaving, sweat and tears streaming down her face and falling to the ground, tinged with pink.

Lawson held his hands behind his back and grinned at David, "Then submit. Submit to my will. Become my weapons."

Naomi's would-be defiant cry ended in another scream of agony.

Lawson lifted his finger off the button once more and shifted away from her suspended form and walked over to David and Billy, who were strapped to operating tables.

"I don't know what made you suddenly so powerful, and so independent, but I will find it and, if need be, I will cut it from you."

Kate lifted her head from where she was also harnessed. Where the boys were strapped down and Naomi was bound like a star to a circular rack, Kate was chained to the back of a cell, hiccupping, sobbing, from the torture she had been unable to withstand. Blood flowed freely from her wounds and she curled up in the farthest corner from Lawson, clutching an unconscious Hope.

Each Genesis Zero had a thick, heavy collar around their necks, which were controlled by a simple remote device on Lawson's wrist. A press of a button triggered one of the many hormonal cartridges inside the metal ring to inject straight into their neck. At Lawson's whim they could become unconscious, lethargic, aggressive, and timid and a varying other emotions and physical conditions.

The serum injected in them when they were captured was a long-acting toxin that paralyzed the neurons and cells in their body responsible for their ability to change shape.

The Genesis Zero were effectively no longer a threat.

Though, as so far, he had been unable to make them bend to his will.

"You should worship me as a god! I made you! I created you! You should be begging to do my will!"

"Shove it up your ass," snarled Billy.

Lawson looked back at Billy and picked up a surgical knife.

"No!" screamed Naomi.

"Don't worry," purred Lawson as two other white-coated surgeons stepped forward and leaned over Billy. "The damage will be easily reparable."

Moments later Lawson's voice rang, annoyed, through the room, "If you're not going to scream the least you could do is whimper."

* * *

Lillania DeRevco stared at the monitors with her husband Richard over her shoulder. 

"This is suicide, Lilly," muttered Richard in his deep baritone. "They're monsters."

"They _were_ people, Rich," snapped Lilly, half the size of her gigantic husband. "They had horrible things done to them. The Captain had the same things done to him as you did!"

Richard averted his golden eyes from her bright emerald ones and looked over at another monitor; watching people being flung backwards by blasts of bright blue-white lights, then were cut down but invisible assailants.

"Lilly, what are you planning?" he looked back at the monitor that had the giant chitinous Xeno king had been in, but there was only blood.

Lots and lots of blood.

Lillania's fingers flew over the keyboard as she read the words coming up on a separate screen, typing purely by touch.

Richard peered at the words, and then gasped, "Queen! You're talking to Queen! What are you doing? _Lilly_."

She placed a placating hand on his arm, "Shh, my love, trust me."

Richard groaned, "Something bad happens every time you say that. Every time. I'm going to go get some weapons." He walked off, "BIG ones."

Lilly smirked as she and Queen finished the last of their planning.

* * *

"Report." 

"**Subjects metabolism is extremely high. Regeneration abilities almost traceable to the naked eye. Subect 02 seems to be _absorbing_ the electrical impulses that are input to her nervous system. Subject 03 remains in shock. Further interrogation unadvised. Could cause permanent psychological damage. Subject 04 and 05 have had muscle increase beyond that of the normality. Though all subjects have denser bone and muscles structure, 04 and 05 are showing growth of an amazing standard**.**" **

"Thank you Queen," said Lawson, looking down through the observation glass at the five captured experiments. "What of 01."

"**Subject 01 still retains extremely aggressive neural activity, though she is currently incapable of doing anything to aid her companions or escape, but she still continues to try. Such continuation could result in damage to the specimen.**"

"Shock her and give her another dose of sedative. Double it this time."

"**But…Professor, that**-"

"If I wanted feedback I would have asked a scientist. Do as you're told," snapped Lawson as he strode from the room.

The holographic image of Queen glared at his back.

Withdrawing into the mainframe, she reluctantly followed his orders, sedating Hope once again.

"**I'm sorry**."

Queen flitted through the wires and machinery of the ship, making slight alterations here and there as needed. She kept a continuous flow of data to Lillania DeRevco as she went about her tasks, numerous as they were, they were easily accomplished.

For a moment, Queen paused at one room, where numerous mechanical arms were piecing together wires and circuit boards and consoles.

Queen would have reached out to touch her work if she was able, but she was still nothing more than impulses and electrical surges.

But soon….So very soon…

She returned to the mainframe.

* * *

Kradak let out an ear-splitting cry of incoherent rage as he charged into the enemy, slamming them against the walls in brutal displays of violence and pent up frustration. 

He ripped one man's skull out and whirled around, grabbing another soldier and beating him to death with his comrade's cranium.

Kradak was a mindless machine of death. He had forsaken his weapons and was killing with his bare hands, heedless of the numerous wounds made by bullet and, when a solider had been desperate, blade.

He was covered in the glistening, sticky life blood of the soft-fleshed prey, his talons dark with gore.

His rage was so complete that he was no longer cloaking either, stalking the corridors and killing any human foolish enough to get in his way. The speed he found prey meant the blood on him was never dry, always a glistening sheen over his speckled hide.

He slammed his forehead into another man's face, crushing his fragile skull like paper, and then grinding it into a paste in his hands.

Inaria, Notak and Jegoret were staying well away from their Hunt Master, wary of his fury, of the strength his rage had lent him.

Briefly their paths had crossed that wake of carnage left by the Xenomorph King.

It was as bad as Kradak, if not worse.

There was blood coating every available space, every exposed surface and even those not, and there was not one identifiable body, nor body part anywhere.

Just mutilated, half eaten meat.

The sight had made Spencer retch and Andrea lost her last meal.

Shane was unfazed.

He was causing as much carnage as the others.

His wounds were healing supernaturally fast, he was moving supernaturally fast, he was killing supernaturally, full stop.

Speed, strength and slaughter.

These three males had erupted into their killing frenzy suddenly, abruptly, without warning or reason.

To the others.

But they all knew.

They knew they ones they loved were being tortured, subjected to the basest of interrogations.

All their anger, all their rage, was nothing, _nothing_ compared to what would happen when they found the ones who _dared_ to harm their women.

* * *

The guard turned the corner and stopped dead, blinking. 

The hall was littered with inert forms, slumped against the wall, spread eagled on the ground. He lifted his gun, instantly alert, and crept forward.

They all looked like they were asleep.

He stepped closer to one guard and shook his shoulder.

The man stepped back as he felt something wet under his hands, but it was too dark to see the color of it.

He looked down at the soldier just as his body slipped down the wall and his head lolled back on his shoulders, revealing the grisly wound in his throat.

He cried out and leaped back, the heady scent of copper making itself known on his mind as he whirled to sound the alarm…

…and a blade sank to the hilt in his ear and deep into his brain.

Lillania allowed the body to drop, sliding from her blade.

She dropped down from the roof and wiped her knife clean on his vest and sheathed it.

Lillania was no scientist. She wasn't a pencil pusher. She wasn't even a soldier.

She was an assassin for hire, a bounty hunter, a paid killer.

And damn good at her job.

Lillania turned and saw Richard, her partner and husband, turning the corner, following behind her.

She whirled and loped or bounded or some other movement that was far too graceful, feline like and silent to be walking or running. She stopped at the corner and lifted a small mirror in her hand, pressing it around the corner, right at the floor.

"Clear," she breathed and slipped around, once again using that strange movement, trusting Richard to have her back.

Slipping up to a huge reinforced door, she peered through it, and then quickly stepped to one side of the door. As soon as it opened she darted through, one foot snapping out to catch the guard in the chin, snapping his head back. Lillania whirled and grabbed the second guard, snapping his neck, then dropped to her knees.

She angled the blade upwards as the first man regained his balance and she stood, the blade sinking into his chin and protruding from the top of his head.

Richard stepped up behind her as she cleaned her blade again and sheathed it, then checked the apparatus in his hand.

"They're this way," he said, pointing down a corridor.

Lilly looked up at him and he leaned down and kissed her, once, deeply. Lilly only hesitated briefly, then wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

"I love you."

"I love you too," he breathed.

Lillania turned away first and made her way down the corridor silently, Richard once again taking the rear as he checked his weapons one last time.

By the time he had rounded the last corner, Lillania had already killed the four or so guards at the door.

Now she took guard watch as he placed the explosives around the observation window and the door. The whole thing took about three minutes. Then they were off again, heading to the other end of the observation room. They had about twenty more minutes left to complete everything before hell broke loose.

It was about timing. Everything had to be timed to perfection.

* * *

"Answer me!" spat the scientist. 

"Answer what?" asked Billy.

"Answer my question!"

"Question?" grunted David. "Was there a question?"

"Yes! Yes there was! Answer it!"

"Answer what?"

"THAT'S IT!" the scientist stormed over to the control panel.

"I thought you're supposed to yell EURIKA!" said Billy idly, as if he was not stretched out on a table, bleeding heavily.

"Enough! Be silent! Answer my question!"

"I thought you wanted us to be silent," said David.

"ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

"What was the question again?"

"There was a question?"

The scientist slapped his palm down and electricity zapped over the boys. Their backs arched and they gritted their teeth from crying out, writhing as much as their restraints would allow.

Finally the palm was lifted and the electricity shut off, allowing the boys to fall limp back to the tables, panting.

* * *

In the examination turned torture room, all hell broke loose as the clock struck 6:00 pm.

* * *

The door to the observation room exploded in a brilliant expanding wave of razor sharp debris, the huge metal panel falling down the stairs, taking out the two guards on them. 

Consecutively after that, each window in the observation deck exploded outwards, showering the room and everyone in it with shards of reinforced glass reduced to so many sharp crystals.

The door on the other side blew open as well, but the door this time flew across the room and spear into the huge machinery on the walls.

Screams of pain and terror filled the air as, from the first door, a huge man leaped over the railing, landing in a crouch on the floor far below. He stood, lifting two guns, and depressed the triggers, strafing the room with the twin streams of bullets, cutting down anyone stupid to get in his way as he tore into the control panel, sparks erupting.

As soon as both clips were dry he dropped the guns and pulled another from his back, racing into the room, taking down the guards that came his way.

A black-clad form flipped through the window, pulling two swords out and hacking into the humans left standing.

Lillania ducked her shoulder and hurled one man over her shoulder, sliding the blade from his body as her other one slashed diagonally down another man's chest, cleaving his body and his gun in half. She whirled and crossed her blades over her chest and yanked them down, slicing open a third man.

Bullets strafed across her shoulder and she staggered under the impact, thanking the double layer of light Kevlar covering her body. She whirled and threw one sword as hard as possible, the man who shot her falling back, his sword imbedded deep in his chest. She ducked under another line of fire and then whirled, running before the bullets. She leaped up and grabbed her sword before the man could fall, using his crumpling body as a platform, to leap over the heads of her attackers and land behind them, rolling to absorb the impact. Before the men could even turn their weapons on her, she had cut one man's head off and set on the others.

"Lilly!" roared Richard as he bead the butt of his weapon against one man's face. "Company!"

Lillania pulled a man's corpse before her to take the brunt of the bullets from the dozen new men that entered the room.

Naomi lifted her head and watched the woman cry out as a bullet tore through her shield's torso and slammed into her shoulder, staggering her. She worked her wrist in the restraint and glared at it, panting. Blood began to leak from her torn skin, but it wasn't enough to lubricate the manacle enough to pull free. She tried to scream out her frustration, then paused.

'_What…was…_?'

She blinked and looked at the computer monitor to her left. Something was…different. She could feel…something…

Suddenly the din of battle around her faded and she stared at the huge metal structure. The sound of her own heart and her breathing became loud in her ears as she stared, until, finally, she saw not bits of metal and lights, but the power of electricity.

'_Electricity_?'

Naomi narrowed her eyes.

* * *

Lillania dove over a large piece of equipment and clutched her bleeding shoulder, then stared at the blood. 

"Shit."

She sheathed her one remaining sword and pulled out her weapon. Checking the clip, she pulled back the slide and clicked off the safety.

Then, the crack of thunder and smell of burning ozone filled the air.

Screams replaced the sound of gunfire and Lillania looked up to see Richard stagger back against the wall, eyes wide.

" Madre de Dios," he whispered.

Lillania pulled herself up, then her eyes widened in horror.

Naomi had been engulfed in electricity, her form bathed in the blue-white glow that fed from a dozen thick tendrils from the floor. The power hand made the restraint explode open and it was enough to suspend Naomi off the ground.

"Fuck me dead…" breathed Lillania.

Naomi turned her head slowly and a bolt of lightning tore up the floor and wrapped around two men, smaller bolts lashing over their form until they were naught but charred corpses. The bolt then dropped them, and she lifted a hand. A second bolt struck a man right in the chest, and, a moment later, it exploded in a shower of gore and blood.

"She's hitting everyone armed!" shouted Lillania. "Drop your weapons! Richard!"

Both began throwing off all of their weapons, then threw themselves under cover.

Naomi spread her arms and, true to Lillania's assumption, everyone on the room with a gun in their hands…

…Died…

* * *

Shane collapsed. 

The others cried out in alarm and ran towards him, pulling him from the floor, carrying him away from the corridor, into safety. Only Andrea saw the small smile that ghosted across his pale, blood slicked face.

Kradak went down onto one knee, and then collapsed as well, purring in contentment as the others swept him up as well, taking him into cover, making sure none could see them as they tried to see what was wrong with him.

But nothing was wrong. Instinctively, they knew. Deep inside.

Their women were safe.

* * *

Deep in the bowels of the ship, Mercarian lifted his head from the corpse, gore hanging from his teeth. He let out a scream of rage and tossed his head back and forth, as if confused. Unlike the others, he was not so sure. Something was wrong. So terribly, terribly wrong.

* * *

"Bite down and inhale," he said briskly. "It will help you heal faster." 

Naomi groaned at the voice and felt something pushed between her teet. She did as she was told and immediately felt strength return to her, her pain fade. Her eyes snapped open and she glared at the man above her as he moved back.

Naomi let out an animalistic hiss, then began to cough at the pain, "Who are you!"

"My name is Richard DeRevco. My wife, Lillania and I are here to rescue you," he replied softly. "You won't be able to transform for some time, conserve your energy."

He looped one arm around her waist and helped her stand.

"Richard, alarm."

Naomi looked over and saw a heavily armed woman, whom she assumed was Lillania, running around the consoles, trailing Billy, carrying Katie, and David, carrying a still comatose Hope.

"Hey, Nomi," said Billy softly.

"Too stubborn to die," she patted her chest.

"Come on," said Lillania and ran up the stairs, over the fallen door.

Naomi pushed away from Richard and staggered to her feet and stumbled after her, snatching up the weapon of a fallen man, "Gimme that."

The guys went up next, and Richard took up the rear.

"Where to?" asked Billy softly as they moved through the observation room.

"Our ship," said Lillania. "It's the only way off this boat."

"Kra….da…k.." whispered Katie.

"We'll see if we can find him but…We don't know, hun," said Lillania softly, eyes downcast.

David and Billy exchanged significant looks as they exited.

However, before they could leave, the door to a containment cell, located beside the exit, bowed outwards violently as something thrashed against the other side, screeching in rage.

Richard lifted his gun and aimed it at the door.

"Genesis….one…" speaking caused Katie to erupt into a fit of coughing.

"Shh," breathed David.

"That's Thanatos?" asked Billy.

"Has to be," grunted Naomi. "What other big ugly monsters are running around this place?"

"S'not running around anymore," growled Richard and cocked his gun.

"No…"

They all glanced at Kate and she swallowed painfully.

"Let…let it live…"

"What?" gasped David. "Are you mad?"

"Can't…get out…Let…live…"

Naomi shrugs, "Alright. Queen, make sure it doesn't come after us."

Silence.

"Queen?" said Lillania, scowling.

"She might be offline if Lawson realized she was helping us," rationalized Richard.

"True…" said Lillania softly, looking extremely uneasy about it. "Let's go."

They all nodded and ran out of the room.

Within the cell, the creature moaned and fell back, eyes clouded with despair and the addled state of drug induced sedation. The chemicals in its veins kept it from communicating in the way it would in this form, but it would contact Genesis Zero…

For it was the only one that saw Hope's hand twitch, and the dark smile that curled her lips.

* * *

**Bah. Short. But I had to give you guys something. And a bit of a cliff hanger at the end there. Gasp Lol. Toss whatever speculations you have at me, I'd love to hear them. I want to see who is close to the truth, and who is way off. Each one is extremely interesting.**

**And please, no death threats. Crimson Mistress may be amazing and all that, but she is only human too. **

**Love you all! **

**CrimsonMistress **


	12. CHapter XI

**Before anyone proceeds, I want them to know that this author's note may be, just a bit, flamish. So if you want to continue reading, you have been justly warned and thus I should hear no complaints. If you have any complaints or if you feel it is too harsh, feel free to email me, but I retain the right to boot your email straight into the bin without further regard.**

**To those people who give me feedback, creative criticism and encouragement on my work, thank you. Your support means a lot to me and it really does help me get through everything.**

**Warning: Compliments and gratitude end here. May contain irritated and PMS-ridden content.**

**First of all, I must say, to all those who emailed me telling me to hurry up, to get my ass in gear and to get back to work. Shut up. Yes, I have been absent a year. Thank you for stating the obvious, because, you know, where I live, we have no annual time-telling system, such as a **_**calendar­­**_

**I would like to inform you, and I cannot stress this enough, that you have no idea, **_**no idea**_**, what my life has been like these past ten or so months. None. And I don't care what you have to say, you cannot even begin to guess, so don't try. Nor am I going to tell you because, frankly, it is none of your damn business.**

**Whilst you all bombarded my inbox and my review area with requests for the next chapter, my irritation and frustration only escalated with each insistent email to drag myself back into this fiction.**

**I appreciate the fact that this means my fiction is loved and read by many people, but please understand that an author cannot be pressured into writing and produce competent works. Also, reading this fiction, and seeing it, is not a right, it is a privilege, and I am fully within my rights to take as fast, or as slow with it as I wish.**

**But here it is. The next, rushed, chapter of my story, to appease the masses.**

**Crimson Mistress**

* * *

_It's been a while since I have said anything. Everything has been so hectic. But now I can say something._

_Betrayal is a painful thing._

_I know this._

_It is the worst enemy. It is the worst kind of pain._

_Because a normal enemy you can see. You can expect. They, at least, will sink the blade into your chest. A betrayer will sink it into your back, where you can't see. Where you can't prepare for it._

_And the worst kind of betrayal is not from some random who entered your group._

_It's from a friend._

_Someone you trust._

_Because the worst part of that, is that you put that blade there._

_My name is Hope._

_My friends are in danger. From a source they least expect._

_And I can do nothing._

_Yet._

* * *

Their footsteps pounded the grate below them as they ran, following the lithe and agile form of Lillania DeRevco as she led them towards their ship. At their rear, Richard, her husband, made a steady, loping pace, the kind of gait that only one with a massive stride can accomplish. 

It felt like they had been running for hours, encountering no opposition, no closed doors, no hints of obstruction.

Which David found odd.

Hanging back behind Billy, who was now carrying Hope, he allowed his thoughts to wander. The young woman was still unconscious, but Katie had regained enough breath to run, keeping pace easily with him. Behind him came Naomi, who had fallen into such a position seemingly randomly, her weapon held at the ready.

Billy trusted Lillania to lead the way, and trusted Richard, Katie, Naomi and David to handle any danger. He had to. His arms were busy.

David, however, trusted only the others of Genesis One.

"Shouldn't we be looking for Kradak and the other Yautja?"

That was the tenth or eleventh time Katie had brought up the same question, and for the eighth time, she was ignored. Apparently Lillania had grown tired of explaining to her that they had no idea where they others were. Naomi had gotten it the first try when she asked about Shane.

Hope had yet to regain consciousness and register the news that they simply had no idea where they others were.

Richard had said simply that their only hope was that the others would meet them at the hanger, as that was where the predator ship was docked also, since they had yet to take it into experimentation.

Or so Lillania said.

David didn't trust her, or her husband, at all.

And he had no clue why.

They had saved them, slaughtered their captors, and were now taking them to their ship.

For all purposes, they were on their side.

So why was he suspicious?

_I feel it too_.

David's eyes slid to one side and he glanced at Naomi as she slid into step beside him.

_ Something is wrong. Very, very wrong_.

Naomi was never one to worry unnecessarily, and that reassured David.

Because if she felt something was wrong, things were very fucked up indeed.

* * *

Claws raked through the door. A snout shoved through the gap and fangs tore into the metal. Screeching, the creature withdrew, and then slammed its body over and over into the hole, lashing out with everything it had. The drugs had finally worn off. Now it craved to be free. Needed to get out. To - 

"Stop that. Look. You've cut yourself. Let me."

The creature nearly had a coronary in surprise at the voice. Its bright eye peered at the one who had spoken, before it hissed in recognition. Stepping back, it made room as strong fingers curled about the metal at one point where the creature had broken through. Crumpling it easily, that hand tensed once, and then tore the door of its pneumatic track. Snarling, the beast emerged from the shadows like some avenging angel, or demon, stepping forward into the light. Rising onto its hind legs, it had to hunch its shoulders to fit in the small space, creating an even more imposing figure as it loomed over the being before it.

For a moment they just stared at each other, before the creature spoke, in the only way it could.

_-Why?- _

A soft chuckle. "I have a job for you."

The soft snarl and the jerking back of its head showed its irritation at the suggestion. _-What_?-

"What you were created to do."

Mere moments later, a giant form ghosted into the halls, with a silence that should have been impossible for a creature of its size, as a humanoid ran in the other direction, footsteps belying a weight that should not have been possessed by a human.

* * *

David planted his foot on the railing as they entered a large hall, probably just some congregational area, nothing significant, except a few crates littering the floor. Crouching down, he leaped off and moved inhumanly high. His feet came down on the ground on the other side of the room and his weapon swept the hall beyond the open door that sat there. 

"This is so weird," he said to himself. "Why are all the doors open in the way we are going?"

Lillania cast him a look as she slipped up behind him. "I gave instructions to Queen to open the doors."

"But she vanished," pointed out David softly. "Shouldn't Lawson have figured out what she did if he shut her off like you said?"

"I said it was a possibility," snapped Lillania. "Now shut up and follow me!"

Naomi paused beside David as the others slipped past, including Hope, who had regained consciousness. She spared a glance for David and Naomi, then kept going, clutching her weapon tighter. Richard also paused and waited for them to move ahead of him.

_ Pushy bitch_, was all Naomi said.

David grunted in affirmation as his eyes narrowed in further suspicion. Glancing askance at the hulking figure of Richard, he then turned and ran after the others. Down a hall, through a door, around a corner, through another door, down into a bay, up the stairs on the other side, into a large storage station, through the storage station, down the hall, around another corner, through another door.

Something was wrong. Something… something…

He froze suddenly, eyes wide. "Wait!"

Everyone stopped and glanced back at him.

David looked around. They were in another bay, a large one that seemed to be storage, massive, car-sized crates sitting here and there and a floor section that appeared to be able to descend to a lower level.

So much like the other rooms that they had been.

"We haven't changed levels."

Lillania made a face, "So?"

"The hanger bay isn't on this floor."

"How do you know that?" snapped Richard, walking up behind them.

David did some rapid calculations in his head. "When we first started, it was one of the many floors for experimentation. When we chased after Klethi, we went down into the bowels of the ship. Which are nowhere near the hanger bays. We ascended to the officer's quarters which are higher than the hanger bays. Then we went back to the experimentation wings." He looked at Lillania accusingly. "This seems like a cargo deck. That's all we've seen. And we're going straight ahead all the time. Which means we must be near the front of the ship. Considering the time we've spent running, I say you've taken us right around the hanger bays, or over them. There's no way we could have missed them."

Lillania made an exasperated sound as she looked at Hope, "Is he always this suspicious?"

Hope looked steadily at David as she spoke, "He's the thinker of the group. He's just probably thinking too much. Come on, Dave. Let's go."

David tensed and the others glanced at Hope. Everyone in the group, bar Naomi occasionally, were called by their whole names. And Hope _knew_ David detested his name being shortened.

"David," said Katie softly. "Do you believe that… Lillania's lost?"

"Or she might be deliberately leading us astray," snarled Naomi, cocking her gun.

"Are you kidding?" was Hope's startled reply. "She? Leading us astray? Why?"

_-Riddle me this: What does a Mercenary work for_?-

They all tensed at the masculine, purring voice that slipped in their minds. Katie, Naomi, David and Billy instantly moved to put their backs to one another, Hope standing near Lillania and Richard.

_-No answer? Let me tell you_.-

A huge form stepped out from the hall to one side of the room, walking through the massive retractable doors that sat open. It stood on clawed hind feet, its body serpentine, but broad at the shoulders, a long prehensile tail behind it and soft fur along its body. Two rams horns curled around its skull and two more arched back and then up behind its head. Fans extended from its cheekbones and a crest emerged from the back of its skull, fluttering and flicking randomly. It didn't have separate arms or wings, the appendages instead fusing together, the fingers elongating into the length required for wings, and three fingers left free, still muscular and strong, to curl in the air before it's body.

_-Money_.-

When they opened fire, it moved with a speed that was unmatched by even Genesis Zero.It left massive rivulets in the wall as it ascended quickly to the roof. It was so fast, that even when Naomi aimed in front of it, it changed directions quickly enough that it was gone before the bullets could it hit.

"This is insanity!" screamed Katie. "We can't even hit it with guns!"

"Faster than a speeding bullet," quoted Naomi inanely.

The firing ceased and the creature hung by one hand, its claws sunk into the wall, cackling madly. _-Oh I have waited long for this…- _ Leaning forward, it seemed to fix an eyeless face right on Hope, and it was only then they realized the use for the fans, the bony spines producing a constant clicking sound. Echolocation. Its lips peeled back all the way to the back of its head, baring its fangs in a grotesque smile. _-Waited long indeed.- _

"You want me?" snarled Hope. "Come and fucking get me!"

_-Gladly._- Crouching down, the creature threw itself across the room, wings spread wide as it caught the air to land on the opposite wall.

Halfway there, it simply vanished.

"What the fuck?!" cried Hope, staggering back. "What happened?" She snapped up her gun and fired at the place it would have landed, at the moment it would have landed, but she hit nothing.

"It can _camouflage_?!" screamed Lillania. "This is bull! We weren't told about this!"

Then, suddenly, she was struck hard from behind. With a startled cry, she flew through the air, only to be caught and hurled right into Richard. The two of them slammed into the ground and skidded several feet, as the creature reappeared, hanging, upside down, from where a barb in its tail was sunk deep into the roof.

_-Do not fire upon me, Genesis Zero. I am not your enemy.- _

"Thanatos…" breathed Katie softly.

"What?" hissed Naomi. "The last Genesis One?!" When she raised her weapon to fire, though, her bullets raked the roof next to her target, who didn't flinch at all.

"Katie!"

The petite blonde had shoved Naomi's gun to one side with her hand, her eyes fixed on the hanging creature.

"What do you want, Thanatos!" she snapped. "Your brothers and sister didn't care for chitchat, other than their boasting. Will you do the same?"

The dragonish-head shook back and forth in a refute of her statement, _I am deeply shamed that I share any genes with those evil creatures. _

"You'd say anything to get us to trust you," spat Hope. "But it won't work! You've already attacked two of us."

_-I merely attacked your enemies_.-

"Our enemies? Richard and Lillania saved us!"

_-They did not save you. They are going to betray you. They are your enemies.- _

"Bullshit!" she snarled. "Why should we believe you! Fucking kill him!"

"Wait! I want to hear what he has to say!" snapped Katie.

"You're out of your fucking mind," hissed Hope.

Twisting sharply, Thanatos turned over and landed hard on the ground, parting his fangs, he hissed faintly, his eerie, pointed, eyeless head swiveling this way and that as he took in them all.

"You were the one in the containment room we passed, weren't you?" said David softly. "The one Richard was going to kill."

The creature nodded slowly.

"But why-"

"Don't be dragged in by this!"

They all looked at Hope, who was standing beside Lillania and Richard. The other members of Genesis Zero turned and looked at her.

"It's trying to trick us! Trying to deceive us! And then it will kill us! Just like the other members of its group tried to!"

"Hope's right," said Billy softly. "Why should we trust you?"

_-If you will not trust me, trust them_.-

They all turned to follow the pointed clawed finger, and Katie let out an ecstatic cry.

The remainder of the Yautja hunting party decloaked and dropped from the high ventilation shaft they had emerged from. Their heavy forms thunked down onto the floor and shook the grating. They had their weapons in their hands and their eyes were fixed, not on Thanatos, but on Hope, Lillania and Richard.

"Kradak!"

The hunt leader's strong arms wrapped tightly around Katie as she threw herself into his embrace, closing the distance between them in record speed, so fast that he even had to step back to brace himself.

"You found us!" She smiled up at him, arching onto her toes in joy. "I can't believe this! How did you find us?"

"We were led here."

Naomi jerked at the voice as Shane and his team emerged from the vent that the Yautja had come from. If Spencer, Andrea and James counted as a team. Shane dropped down and the Yautja caught him, then Spencer, although the latter male was quick to remove himself from their arms, then Andrea and James, who both uttered a soft word of thanks to Jegoret and Notak.

"Shane…"

"Jesus fuck, Naomi," he breathed. "I've been looking all over the fuckin' place for you. You know how to hide."

The tall woman flashed a gentle smile, but did not run into his arms. She was too busy holding her gun on Thanatos.

They all waited, and then many of them turned towards Hope expectantly. She met their curious gazes with an arched brow. "What?"

David and Billy glanced at each other, but David managed to ask, as he returned his gaze to Thanatos, "Did you find Mercarian?"

Hope cringed faintly.

"Not yet," said Andrea softly. "We will."

Hope nodded slowly, "Of course we will."

"No," said Shane softly. "_We_ will. _You_ will not."

"Beg pardon?" piped up the tall blonde.

"I said," Shane lifted his weapon, pointing it at her head. As did the rest of his team, "you will not."

"Shane!" cried Naomi. "What are you doing?!"

"She's not Hope, Naomi," said Shane. "Please believe me."

"What the fuck?!" shouted Hope, swinging around to point her gun back at the soldier. "Get that gun out of my face!"

"Shane! Hope!" gasped Katie. "Both of you put your weapons down!"

Thanatos sat back on his tail, an amused look crossing his face as he folded his muscular wing/arms over his chest as best he could, watching the situation as the group started turning on each other.

David and Billy looked perplexed as to what to do, but a moment later both aimed their guns at Shane.

"Hey!" Naomi whirled on them, but they did not flinch. "Lower your weapons!"

"Tell him to stop aiming at Hope," replied Billy calmly.

"_**That is not Hope**_," rumbled Kradak.

"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Hope. "Of course I am Hope. Who the fuck else would I be?"

Lillania and Richard shared a distressed look as Shane and Hope squared off.

"She's not Hope! Naomi believe me!"

"Put down your guns!"

"Guys come on!"

"I am not your enemy!"

"_**She is an imposter**_."

"What kind of bullshit is that?!"

"They're telling the truth."

"WHO is telling the truth?!"

"Stop pointing that gun at me!"

"Stop pointing that gun at _me_!"

"Guys be rational!"

"I'll be rational when I'm not looking down a gun barrel!"

"I'll be rational when you tell the truth."

"Shut up you bastard!"

Guns changed directions faster than possible, and the Yautja activated their laser sights, some settling on Hope, but most settling on Lillania and Richard.

"Get those off me!"

"They're enemies too!"

"Fucker!"

_-How amusing_.-

"Shut up, abomination!"

"_**Move and I will kill you**_."

"Not if I kill you first!"

"Are you all out of your fucking minds!?"

"You must be out of your mind if you believe them for a second!"

"Just lower your guns, this is not helping anything."

"It would help if they're dead."

"How about _I_ help?"

Everyone whirled around and saw the last person most of them wanted to see, or expected.

Lawson.

The man was reclining lazily on and against some crates, decked out in some strange body amour, showing off a strangely fit physique that he had not had when they had last met. He looked like he had fit in a year's worth of working out since that time.

"Oh what the fuck…?" snapped Naomi. "Would you just fuckin' die already?!"

"Sorry," smirked Lawson. "I can't oblige. That seems to interfere drastically with my ambitions."

"Let me place my own ambitions in there, then?"

As Naomi raised her gun, Lillania leaped into action, lashing out the hilt of her blade and striking Naomi hard across the face. With a startled cry, the woman fell to the ground, and found herself looking down Lillania's gun, her boot at her throat.

"Everyone drop their fucking weapons!" snarled Lillania. "Or I'll blow her fucking brains out all over this floor! Genesis Zero experiment or not, she won't survive a bullet to the head!"

Naomi gasped for breath and Richard stepped up beside his wife, aiming his gun at Naomi's head.

"DO IT!"

"I'd do it," said Lawson mildly. "She's slightly mentally unstable, you know."

"Lillania…" breathed Katie. "What.. are you doing?"

"My job," retorted the woman.

_-Told you so_.-

"Ohh isn't this delicious?" Lawson laughed and leaned forward on the crate, bracing his boots on the crate below it. "Such a wonderful series of events that coincidentally fell right into the perfect intricacies of my plans."

"Your plans?" hissed Shane as he put his gun on the ground. The Yautja deactivated their laser sights and the Genesis Zero guns followed soon after.

Hope, however, kept her gun, staring up at Lawson silently.

"Mmhm," the human nodded, smirking hugely. "My plans. Funny that."

_-I told you mercenaries don't work for free..- _

"Shut up." Richard turned his gun to one side, and raked Thanatos with fire before the Genesis One could move.

Katie screamed as the creature's chest was opened up from the hair of bullets, slumping on the ground with a screech of pain.

"What the…!"

"Don't move!"

Everyone froze as Hope aimed the gun at Katie, her eyes flat and cold, as the girl had been running towards the wounded Genesis Zero.

"H… Hope?" Katie couldn't believe her eyes as she stared into Hope's murder-crazed gaze.

"I said…don't move."

The marines and the Yautja showed little reaction to Hope's move, but Genesis Zero looked like they'd just had their guts ripped out.

Another gun cocked and turned towards Katie.

"Like she said," purred Lillania. "Don't move."

"Disarm them," snapped Lawson.

Suddenly the weapons they had dropped were scooped up from the ground, and the plasma casters on the Yautja's backs were torn free. As they staggered from the motions, creatures flipped through the air, slithering into view like a heat haze, much like Thanatos had.

"All of you gather there." Lillania gestured with her gun brusquely. "Close now, away from the Genesis One."

Slowly the group moved over to an open area in the middle of the room, disarmed, except for the Yautja weapons, which they, too, were quickly disarmed of with efficient moves of the half invisible warriors. Their movements were quick and efficient and, when anyone made a move to attack, they were simply not there, fading from sight and from presence.

"What the fuck is going on?!" shouted David.

"Meet Genesis Two," crowed Lawson.

Billy's face literally twitched. "This is just too much…"

"Genesis Two are the remains or my corporate soldiers… after death. Reanimated with the DNA of Genesis One and Genesis Zero. They possess capabilities of all of you, especially Thanatos' camouflague." Lawson shrugged and lifted his unwounded hands. "And I incorporated some of that DNA into me. So I am one of them, so to speak."

"Oh great," said David. "We're one big happy freakish family."

"You didn't tell us the bastard could do that," hissed Lillania, turning her head to indicate she was speaking to Lawson. "Maybe next time you could inform us better?"

"My apologize, ma'am," purred Lawson. "I shall keep that in mind."

"Wait wait whoa," said Billy. "What?"

"You lot really are dumb. Like the freak said." She gestured at Thanatos. "I'm a mercenary. I don't do anything for free," the woman grinned ruthlessly and walked backwards until she was out of reach of Genesis Zero, letting Naomi up slowly. Shane moved to her side and hauled her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. She glared death at Lillania and Richard, who moved up beside the small woman.

"What about Richard?? What about what they did to him?" snapped Naomi hoarsly. "They made him like Shane!"

Richard shrugged, his face emotionless, "Unlike him, I _asked_ to be like this. I'm the best in the business now. No one can best me."

"No one but me," said Lillania arrogantly, and they exchanged a hostile look.

"You're not married, are you?" said Naomi softly.

"Are you kidding me? Me? Involved with a man?" Lillania made a sound of amused contempt. "Sorry love, but my tastes don't revolve around that gender."

It took a moment for that to process.

"Dyke," muttered Billy. "I'm about to be killed by a fuckin' dyke."

"Homophobe," snapped Naomi.

"I am not!"

"I see, even in the face of death, you can make jokes."

Lawson shoved off the crates and landed on the ground, rubbing his arms as he stretched. Around him, more of the altered soldiers slid into view easily once again, having faded from sight once they had disarmed them all, weapons aimed at the beleaguered group.

Katie had ignored everyone, as had Kradak, the Yautja's eyes fixed on the tiny form of the female he had come to care so deeply about, as a woman who Katie recognized as her best friend aimed a gun at her chest.

"_**She is not your friend, Katie**_."

"Sh… She…"

Hope didn't say anything, her eyes staring at the other woman, her knuckle white from where she held the trigger of her gun.

"But…"

"Ahh…" Lawson turned his attention to that small conversation, smirking, then down at Thanatos. "I held such high hopes for you, you know? Your siblings proved to be rather vicious. If they could be unleashed on an enemy, they would prove formidable indeed. But you…"

The creature seemed to be having great difficulty breathing, its head lying on the ground, blood pooling in an ever widening puddle under him, thick, dark and red. His tail and hind legs were limp and damage to a place in his back belied a spinal wound.

_-You cannot choose your family_…-

"Oh save me the semantics," drawled Lawson. "Kill the disappointment."

Hope turned her gun obediently on the creature, but suddenly Kate was in the way, arms wide, blocking the view.

Hope scowled faintly, "I don't have orders to kill you."

"Hope…" breathed Kate. "Whatever control he has over you… break it. Come back to us…"

"Oh she doesn't get it. How cute," Lawson practically giggled with glee.

"_**Katie**_!" gasped Kradak. "_**Come away**_!"

"No. This is wrong, Hope. He helped us. He saved us!"

"Get out of the way," said Hope softly. "He is a monster and I have been ordered to kill him."

"So are you," said Katie simply. "We're all monsters, so we have something in common. That way, we don't have to swing alone."

Lawson called out, "Do as you see fit, girl."

Hope glanced at him, and saw the smug expression on his face, then turned back to the girl.

"Hope… Please. Lawson is our enemy here. His soldiers are the enemy here. Please…"

Hope slowly relaxed, her eyes lowering. She shuddered once, her entire body wracked with small convulsions, "You're right." Swinging the gun around, she aimed and pulled the trigger. "I am a monster."

Everyone screamed in denial as blood sprayed the air, turning into a pink mist before settling on the ground.

But the blood didn't come from Katie, as the bullets tore into her chest and decimated her tiny frame.

It came from Hope, as her own chest was destroyed by the taloned hand that had burst through it.

A taloned hand that belonged to, literally, the person they least expected.

"You made several mistakes in this situation. The most prominent being daring to put my family in danger."

The hand belonged to another, very real, very enraged Hope.

* * *

T**here you go. Cliffhanger. I'll get the next chapter up ASAP, and maybe another fiction. We'll just see.**

** Crimson Mistress**


	13. AUTHOR'S NOTE

**WARNING! Author's note ahead! If you don't want to read it, LEAAAVE!**

Please don't hate me. ;; I know some of you were thinking 'Holy shiznit she updated!' but I haven't! I'm working on it, I am, but it's the final year of school and I have so little spare time… I'm also working on re-writing the first chapters, since my skill with writing has decidedly improved, and I cringe every time I read them. I can to much better.

BUT! This is now what the AN is for! And if I'm not allowed to do this, someone tell me, and I shall deeleet it. But! I NOW HAVE A account! Which means, buh buh! You'll see my UNIQUE works! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, UNIQUE WORKS!

I currently have a fiction called 'How it Began' by CrimsonMistress on and I was wondering, perhaps, maybe, please oh please, if some of you wonderful, lovely, darling readers of mine could go take a wee squizz and see how I can improve it, since it is, in fact, a competition entry for myself. Am I allowed to do this? If I'm not someone let me know. BUT! It's entered in the first chapter/ short story category, so if I love it, I might write more!!

Only problem is… I deviate a lot, and get distracted. I come up with an average of three story ideas a week, usually more, and I just dive into them so much I get so distracted. Don't hate me! Please!

So I was thinking about constructing what will be called… Pulls aside a curtain. CRIMSON MISTRESS' SCRAPBOOK OF IDEAS!

It would merely be something that I could use to make characters, throw up ideas and let you, the reader, look through them and see how you like, nyeh? What do you think? I am really riding on your opinions here!!

Well, let me know in reviews and the like, and I'll try to get Genesis Zero updated uber fast. ;; I love you guys! You are my motivation to continue on!!!

MWAH!

XXX Crimson Mistress


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